Imouto Trilogy: Even After All These Years
by Basic Imperfection
Summary: An antisocial ANBU. A lazy Jounin. A loud-mouthed Genin. A cold Missing-nin. Seperate, these people have next to nothing in common, but put them together and you get the life of Hatake Kyomi, Konoha's Densetsu no Ookami-nin. ItachiOC.
1. Prologue: The ANBU

A/N: Hello everyone! (**grins**) This is my first Naruto story, but I hope you all will enjoy it. I've been writing it for almost a year now and so already have 14 chapters, including the prologue, of it done and edited. I'll be posting a chapter every week, usually on Friday. Also, I do realize that this first chapter is short, but it's just the prologue. The rest of the chapters will be _much_ longer, believe me. Well, please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years 

Prologue  
_The ANBU_

* * *

Through the dense forest, a black blur sped through the trees. The shadow deftly leapt from branch to branch, its weight barely touching one branch before it was in the air again. The impenetrable blackness of the night didn't seem to phase it in the least bit, let alone slow it down.

Finally, several miles later, the blur landed in the center of a wide dirt road, just before a tall gateway. Two figures stood in front of the gate, both Konoha Chunin by their dress and hitai-ate. They both tensed up slightly at the blur's arrival. The darkness of the moonless night hid the crouching figure well and no details could be observed through the dark. Suddenly the figure straightened and stepped into the light created by the two shinobi's lamp.

The figure was revealed to be a kunoichi by the shape of her figure. She stood about five and a half feet tall, with a somewhat small figure. She had long silver hair that was held back in a tight braid. The color of her eyes was hidden by the ookami, wolf, ANBU mask covering her face.

At the sight of that mask, both of the Chunin relaxed slightly. That mask, as well as the tattoo on her shoulder, revealed her to be a Konoha ANBU shinobi. Her outfit though, was what really caught their eyes. She was wearing black pants, the standard shinobi sandals, a black tank top with a high neck, and long black fingerless gloves that reached to her elbows. She also had the standard ANBU katana strapped to her back. What stuck out the most though was the state of her clothes.

They were ripped and torn, as well as dirty and muddy. There were cuts all over the ANBU's body, and fresh blood dripping out of a rather nasty looking wound on her thigh. The Chunin knew that for the ANBU to be as wounded as she was she must have faced a very amble opponent. They couldn't help but wonder who it had been.

The two said not a word however; they simply bowed, as she is their superior, and then went back to staring out into the dark forest as was their job. The ANBU, ignoring the two Chunin, quickly continued on through the gate and into her birthplace of Konohagakure no Sato, the Hidden Leaf Village.

Immediately, she took to the rooftops, despite the appearance of the empty streets. It was simply faster for her to jump from rooftop to rooftop rather than walk or run along the street. The ANBU supposed that it was habit, basic instinct kicking in, that made her travel the rooftops.

After another minute or so of running and leaping through the village, she reached her goal, the Hokage tower. Breezing past the guards and through the building, she only slowed when she reached the door to the Hokage's office. There she nodded to the ANBU on guard before silently slipping through to door.

The sight that greeted the silver haired ANBU was something that nearly made her sweatdrop, despite her usually stoic exterior. The Godaime Hokage, the Fifth Hokage, was stretched out across her desk, snoring loudly. Papers were scattered everywhere with a half-empty sake bottle hanging from the Godaime's hand.

Slightly fearing the Godaime's infamous temper and strength, the ANBU coughed politely and called out, "Hokage-sama."

The Godaime snorted slightly at the disturbance before suddenly waking with a jerk. "Eh? Wha?" she mumbled, wiping some drool from the corner of her mouth and looking around her office. When her eyes landed on the ANBU standing before her, she immediately straightened a scowl on her face. "What the hell are you doing here at this time of the night?!" she growled still half asleep.

"I apologize Hokage-sama," the kunoichi said with a respectful bow. "But you asked me to report to you as soon as I returned."

The Godaime blinked for a moment before abruptly realizing whom it was that was standing in front of her. "Ah, yes! How did it go?" she asked, eyeing the ANBU's bloodstained figure with a wince. She still had yet to completely get over her fear of blood.

"The mission was accomplished, Hokage-sama," the ANBU replied as she placed a medium sized scroll on the Godaime's desk. "The scroll's owner had hired a Kumo-nin to protect the scroll. He was only Jounin level, but caught me with a surprise lightning attack. The mistake I made will not happen again." She assured.

"Good," the Godaime nodded, avoiding looking at the ANBU's wounds. "Now why don't you go to the hospital to get your wounds cleaned and healed? You can hand in your full mission report tomorrow."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The ANBU bowed once more before turning toward the door to exit the room.

"Oh," the Godaime suddenly said causing the ANBU to pause with her hand outstretched toward the office door handle. "And good job, Hatake Kyomi."

* * *

In a forest far from Hi no Kuni, the Land of Fire, two figures stood in the inky blackness of the night. They were completely silent and even the swishing of the cloaks that surrounded them could not be heard. It was a while before the first figure, who was far larger than the second, more lithe one, finally spoke.

"What did the leader say? Are we to go back?"

The smaller figure turned around to face the larger one. "No. We continue on with the mission as was planned."

"But Itachi--"

"No, Kisame." The smaller figure seemed to tower over the larger one, despite the large difference in size. It turned its back to its partner once more and crimson eyes with three strange black tomoe in the center stared out into the dark. "We continue on as planned. In four months, during the next Chuunin Exams, we will capture the Kyuubi's host."


	2. Chapter 1: The Jounin

A/N: Hey, I'm back! Before I say anything else, there's one thing that I want to make clear: This story _is_ AU, and not just because of Kyomi. This story is set about three years after the start of Naruto and in this storyline, Naruto _did_ manage to bring back Sasuke and so Team 7 is whole again. Also, Naruto never left with Jiraiya on that training trip and all of the Rookie 9 are still Genin (for reasons that will be explained). Other little changes will become apparent as the story goes on

Thanks to all of those who have reviewed! This chapter is about the average length the chapters in this story will be. There's not much action yet, as it's more so just introducing the main character and her background.

Before I continue though, let me explain the different types of ANBU in this story. First there are **regular** **ANBU**, who wear **black** **cloaks**. Next are the **ANBU captains **(sometimes called squad leaders), who wear **beige cloaks**. After that are **solo ANBU**, who are equal in rank to ANBU captains. Thy work alone and can wear **whatever they want**. If they wear a cloak, it will usually be the beige of ANBU captains, though some prefer to wear the black of regular ANBU. Finally are the **ANBU commanders** who wear **white cloaks** and are the commanders of all ANBU. There are four of them in order to balance out the power (kind of like a council).

Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - I read this in The Red Dragons Order's fic Over the Hills and Far Away and loved and so decided to use it. So, this explanation belongs to that author.

(2) - Tori means bird. It's a reference to his ANBU mask.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years

Chapter 1  
_The Jounin_

* * *

In the middle of Konoha sat a medium sized residence. It was nothing special really, just a two bedroom apartment with one bathroom, a small kitchen, and living room. One of the bedroom doors was closed; it always was. Most people who visited the apartment figured that it was just an extra bedroom or a storage room. No one ever really thought about it. After all, why should they? It was just a door that had always been there.

At the moment there were five people sitting and talking in the living room, all of them relaxing on various chairs and couches that covered the room. The first of them was the one whom the apartment belonged to. He was a retired ANBU, now a Jounin, by the name of Hatake Kakashi. The one eye of his that was visible--the other was hidden behind his titled leaf hitai-ate--was curved in open amusement as he read the little orange book that he was holding up. He was only half-paying attention to the conversation that was going on around him, and every now and then would let out a perverted giggle. One could only begin to guess to content of his book, which just happened to be titled "Icha Icha Violence" or, rather, "Make-out Violence".

The second person in room was Maito Gai. He was a loud and exuberant shinobi, constantly yelling about "the power of youth". His exclamations would often scare--and sometimes mentally scar--those around him, but he always seemed to be completely oblivious to it. Another part of him that scared those around him was his outfit. He would almost always wear a strange green skintight jumpsuit, had his black hair in a bowl cut, and had large bushy eyebrows that were often referred to as, and/or mistaken for, face-eating caterpillars. Once again, he seemed to be oblivious to the discomfort his appearance caused, though it had often been speculated that he acted and dressed the way he did mainly to cause his opponents to underestimate him. After all, despite the way he behaved he was the finest Taijutsu expert in Konohagakure, otherwise known as the Green Beast of Konoha. He, like Kakashi, was a Jounin.

The next person was a kunoichi by the name of Yuuhi Kurenai. She was also a Jounin, though she was much quieter than Gai and much more...normal...than Kakashi. She had shoulder length wavy black hair and dark crimson eyes. Though she may not seem so simply from her appearance, she was in fact the best Genjutsu specialist in the village.

The fourth person was yet another shinobi, and also a Jounin. His name was Sarutobi Asuma. He had black hair, which was somewhat shaggy, a beard that could almost be considered a goatee, and deep brown eyes. A cigarette hung lazily from his mouth as it always did. In fact, his entire posture radiated laziness as he was draped over a chair, one arm dangling over the armrest, the other resting across his lap. He had his head resting idly on his shoulder. Very few would ever suspect him to be the Taijutsu specialist that he was.

The final person in the room was the only one to actually be sitting up straight with his hands in his lap, even though he was just as relaxed as the others. He was Umino Iruka and the only Chuunin in the room among the four other Jounin. He had black eyes, brown hair that was held up in a ponytail, and a long scar that crossed the bridge of his nose. He seemed to be somewhat stiff and nervous around the Jounin, though there was a relaxed smile across his face.

What did these five have in common, one might ask. Simply put, the Jounin were all instructors and Umino Iruka had been the Chuunin sensei for nine of the twelve Genin that the Jounin taught back when the Genin were still in the Academy. The five shinobi got together now and then to discuss that Genin, though often they just hung out and relaxed instead.

"Maa, maa," Kakashi said, speaking finally. "Why do you guys always have to come over to _my_ house?"

"Because, idiot," Kurenai replied with a roll of her eyes. "If we go anywhere else you'll be late. But if we come here we avoid any unnecessary complications."

"YES!" Gai shouted. "Because the power of youth waits for no one!"

Kakashi had just opened his mouth to respond, when the door suddenly banged open. Kakashi's eyes immediately widened upon seeing the person standing in the doorway and he then quickly shoved his naughty orange book behind his back, attempting to hide it. "A-a-ah, K-Kyomi-chan," he stuttered, showing his obvious nervousness. "Y-you're back from your last mission?"

"Hn," Kyomi grunted. Ignoring all those in the room, most of whom were wearing dubious and confused looks, she stalked through the house and to the bedroom with closed door. Her silver braid swayed behind her as she swiftly walked and her stunning ice blue eyes stared fixedly ahead. Her black clothes were still ripped and torn from her last mission, though no cuts or wounds were visible on her, thanks to a visit to the hospital the night before.

Upon reaching the closed door, she yanked it open, allowing those in the living room only a quick glance at the obviously lived-in bedroom inside before she slammed the door closed behind her.

The five sitting in the living room blinked slightly at her behavior and three of them were still wearing confused expressions. "Kakashi-kun," Kurenai said slyly after a moment of staring. "I didn't know that you were living with your girlfriend."

Kakashi, who had been about to take a drink from a glass of water, abruptly choked, let the glass drop from his hand and onto the carpeted floor, and started hacking. "W-what?" he wheezed, for once loosing his calm and lazy demeanor.

Gai, also acting a bit out of character, immediately started laughing his head off, even going as far as to fall of the couch that he had been sitting on. The other three in the room stared perplexed at the two and Kurenai blinked in confusion.

After another minute or so Kakashi could finally breathe again. Picking the somehow-still-intact glass up off the floor and wiping some water off his vest, he stared half incredulously and half disgustedly at Kurenai. Slowly he asked, "What the world made you think that I would _ever_ date my little sister?"

The reaction to this simple question would be quite comical to bystanders and in fact sent Gai into another fit of hilarious laughter. Kurenai stared at Kakashi in wide-eyed and open-mouthed shock, her left eye twitching slightly, while Asuma grabbed his throat and started gagging. Iruka also jerked in surprise, blinking at Kakashi.

Iruka, being the one with the smallest reaction, was the one who recovered first. "You've never mentioned that you had a sister."

Kakashi, back to his normal self, grinned beneath his mask and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Maa," he answered. "I guess it just never came up."

"I'm surprised by you, my eternal rival!" Gai yelled, finally over his fit of laughter. He was in front of Kakashi in a second, shaking his finger under Kakashi's nose. "Why have you never told them? I've known her since I first met you!"

"Er..." Kakashi hesitated. He was staring cross-eyed at Gai's finger, if his one eye that was visible was anything to go by. Asuma and Kurenai chuckled at the two.

"How old is she? She looked pretty young." Kurenai asked, taking up the questioning, as Asuma probably wouldn't, considering his usually uncaring attitude.

"Yeah, she's nearly ten years younger than me. She was 19 last time I checked."

"What rank is she?" Kurenai continued. "I saw the hitai-ate around her forehead but she had nothing else to identify her rank; no vest or anything."

"She's an ANBU!" Gai proclaimed before Kakashi could answer.

"Eh? Then what was with her outfit?" Asuma asked, suddenly taking an interest in the conversation.

Kakashi shrugged. "She's a solo ANBU, so she doesn't have to wear the traditional ANBU outfit. I'm not sure why her mask wasn't with her though."

Kurenai nodded understandingly; she was still a little surprised that Kakashi had a younger sister. And one who was a solo ANBU no less! It took skill and experience for any ninja to reach that level; she would be considered to be equal with that of an ANBU captain.

For the next half an hour or so, the five continued to talk, mostly about random subjects, though Kyomi did come up every now and then. Soon they all realized that they all had other duties to attend to, and that it was best to leave. Eventually, only Kakashi and Gai were left.

The two were in the kitchen of the medium sized apartment, cleaning up the last of the dishes that the five had used for lunch. Gai was in the middle of wiping a plate with an unusually serious look on his face. He seemed to be lost within his thoughts, so Kakashi didn't bother him.

Gai suddenly spoke up, seemingly still lost in his thoughts. "She's changed so much."

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked absent-mindedly. He was unsure about what Gai meant by that statement and about whom he was talking about.

"Kyomi."

"Ah," Kakashi said, smiling sadly under his mask. "Yes, she has."

"She used to be such a bubbly person," Gai continued, still seeming to be oblivious to the world around him. "She was always laughing and smiling. I remember that she loved to play practical jokes on anyone and everyone. Even on the Sandaime Hokage! That's probably part of the reason why Sarutobi-sama didn't really mind Naruto playing pranks on him; he was already used to it because Kyomi used to do the same thing."

Kakashi sighed. "Yep. But then she changed." His hands, which were gripping the counter, tightened until his knuckles turned white. "And it was entirely _his_ fault. If he hadn't left, he hadn't betrayed us all--" Abruptly Kakashi cut himself off. A happy smile, though mostly fake, covered his face, curving his visible eye. "But it's best to not think of the past and of what could have, should have, been, ne?"

Gai nodded offhandedly, and they both returned to finishing up the dishes.

* * *

Upon entering her room, Kyomi didn't turn on her light. Instead, she walked over to the window on the far side of her bedroom and pulled back the curtains, allowing the early afternoon light to shine into her room. She then plopped down onto her blue bed, laying an arm across her eyes and giving her dirty and torn up clothes not a thought.

After visiting the Hokage, Kyomi had gone to the hospital, though just walking this time. When she arrived, the medic-nin and the doctors immediately checked her in. She was nearly completely healed a few hours later, but they had insisted on having her stay until the morning.

As soon as they had let her out, Kyomi had gone straight back to the Hokage's tower, intent on writing her mission report. Even after being awake over 24 hours, she still wasn't that tired. After all she was trained to be able go for days with out sleep and still be able to fight a tough battle at her best.

Filling out the mission report had taken a little bit longer than she had expected. Still, it didn't take all that long and soon it was written up and filed away. After that was done, Kyomi had decided to come back home and rest for a bit before she would have to return to the Hokage tower in the evening to receive her next mission.

When she had walked in the door, Kyomi had already been a bit peeved at the hospital for keeping her so long, and seeing that Kakashi had four of his friends over hadn't helped. Still, she just ignored all five of them--even why she saw Kakashi hide that stupid, evil little book behind his back--and just walked straight to her room.

So now here she was, just laying on top of her covers, thinking about her day and about how ticked off at the hospital she still was. She was an ANBU for Kami's sake! She could handle getting wounds far worse than she had and could deal with them for days on end without slowing down.

That was just one of the many harsh requirements that came with being an ANBU. Kyomi had made it up to the rank of a solo ANBU through years of tough training and missions. The rank was just about equal to that of ANBU captains--thus the reason why they were allowed to go on missions alone--but below that of ANBU commanders. But that was to be expected; after all, there are only four ANBU commanders in each village, as they take rank only just below Kage. It was usually from one of the ANBU commanders that the next Kage was picked.

Having the rank of solo ANBU also meant that Kyomi basically got to pick what she would wear instead of the standard ANBU outfit. Kyomi, however, decided to basically wear the usual ANBU garb, but with out the metal arm guards or the armor. She was had a wider range of movement and was able to move much faster without such metal on. She still had the mask, the katana, and the ANBU tattoo, of course. Those three were required no matter your rank.

Kyomi would be wearing her mask at that moment, as she usually wore it at most times, but it had been damaged during her mission and she had to throw it away. It was no problem though; she had several more. All ANBU had multiple copies of their mask in case of such circumstances.

As her thoughts turned to her ookami mask, Kyomi let a small smile grace her face for the first time in quite awhile. She could still remember the day that she had been given her mask and raised to the rank of ANBU; she had only been 15. She could clearly remember what the Sandaime Hokage had said to her about the legacy of the Ookami ANBU.

"_The mask depicts a wolf. A lone animal, yet also a pack animal. A powerful, dangerous hunter, yet also protective of their precious ones. A survivor, a leader, and an animal with amazing skills to adapt to change. But most of all, the mask depicts endurance. And endurance is something you have in bounds and leaps, especially with the mission you have put before yourself, Hatake Kyomi._"**(1)**

Those words had continued to stay with Kyomi through the years. It showed how great of an honor it was to continue the legacy of the Ookami. You see, at any time there can only be one ANBU for each animal. When one ANBU dies or retires, a shinobi who has similar qualities of the former shinobi's animal and with enough power for an ANBU was chosen to take the former ANBU's place. As far as Kyomi knew, this was true for all of the Hidden Villages.

Kyomi rolled over onto her side, pulling her thoughts away from her ANBU life. Her job took most of her time, as it did for most shinobi, so she didn't want to think too much about it while she was at home. She'd probably have a mission tomorrow anyway...Suddenly Kyomi shot up. She'd completely forgotten! She still needed to go see the Hokage to receive her mission for tomorrow!

As Kyomi jumped up off her bed, she offhandedly glanced at her bedside clock...and promptly cursed. She hadn't realized that she'd been lying around thinking for so long. Taking long strides, Kyomi walked over to her closet and proceeded to get dressed in to less...demolished...clothes. When she was done she strapped her katana onto her back and placed a new ookami mask over her face.

Kyomi glanced fleetingly at herself in the mirror on the wall as she passed, just to make sure that she hadn't forgotten something, before turning to the door. She silently stepped out, making sure to close the door behind her like she always did. Her baka of a brother always left his own open. That had never really made much sense to her; why allow possible potential enemies to see into your personal space? Well, Kyomi didn't really have time to think about that right now, so she wiped all thought from her mind and proceeded through the apartment.

As she passed by the kitchen, Kyomi heard voices inside. Kakashi's and Gai's she believed, but she completely ignored them anyway. She needed to get to the Hokage tower and pronto. It wasn't like she was late or something, as she had no appointment or specific time she had to be there, but she'd rather not leave it too late. She was almost positive that she'd either be distracted or slowed down along the way; such was the randomness of life.

* * *

Kyomi was walking through the streets of the village that her previous prediction of life came true.

"Ookami-san! Ookami-san!" a voiced called, using Kyomi's ANBU name. Kyomi paused and turned her head slightly, ice blue eyes calmly searching from beneath her mask for the person whom the voice belonged to. She didn't have to search long however, for only a few seconds later another ANBU appeared through the crowd behind her.

This ANBU wore the standard ANBU apparel, metal armor included, and a beige cloak around his shoulders, which signified him to be the rank of ANBU captain--regular ANBU wore black cloaks and ANBU commanders wore white cloaks. Kyomi herself didn't wear any cloak at all, believing strongly that they only got in the way. The ANBU's katana was on his waist instead of his back, which was unusual for an ANBU, and spiky brown hair peeked out from behind the bird ANBU mask covered his face.

"Tori-san,**(2)**" Kyomi greeted politely with an even nod of her head in his direction.

The ANBU returned the nod of his head and Kyomi had the distinct feeling that he was smiling warmly under his mask. "Ookami-san," he returned. "I have been looking for you ever since I heard that you had returned from your last mission." This caught Kyomi's attention; she rarely socialized with ANBU--or anyone in general--, so why would he be looking for her? "Several of us are going out to the Ishigawa Bar and we were wondering if you'd like to join. So...?" he hinted, unsuccessfully trying to persuade her.

Kyomi blinked beneath her mask before sighing inaudibly. It was nice of them to try to get her to go out a little more, it really was, but she just wasn't that type person. Maybe she had been at one time, six years ago, but six years was six years. And now she had learned from past experiences not to get to close to people; whether they meant to or not, it was in human nature to eventually betray those around them in some way or another.

"Thanks," Kyomi answered, keeping her voice monotone and not revealing her thoughts at all. "But I'm on my way to the Hokage tower right now so I can't."

The ANBU seemed to deflate ever so slightly to her response. "No problem. I'll see you around." And with that, he disappeared from her sight. Kyomi just shrugged mentally; she had other, and more important, things to deal with at the moment.

* * *

As Kyomi reached the door to the Hokage tower, she bowed politely to the ANBU on guard there. Last time she had just breezed past them without a word, but last time she had also been injured and in a hurry, not to mention that it was the middle of the night. The two black-cloaked ANBU there bowed in return to her, though slightly deeper than hers had been, as they recognized her as their superior, and then returned to staring straight ahead. Kyomi took this for the acceptance that it was and continued on, walking though the door.

Honestly, Kyomi hated all the formality. It was incredibly boring and seemed to waste so much time for no real reason; if it were her choice, she'd skip over the entire thing. But frankly, she couldn't. Tradition was tradition, and no matter how hard she wanted to change, there was no way that she possibly could. Perhaps one day the traditions would change, but that would only happen slowly and over a lot time.

Kyomi was effectively cut out of her thoughts as she reached the door to the Hokage's office. A quick word with the secretary confirmed that the Hokage was free at the moment and that she could just walk in. Kyomi nodded to the ANBU guarding the door to the Hokage's office--just a nod, as he was an ANBU captain and thus her equal--before opening the door just as she had done the night before.

As she closed the door behind her, Kyomi glanced around the room. The Godaime was awake this time and sitting at her desk, slowly working through mounds of paper. As Kyomi approached, the Godaime didn't look up, though Kyomi knew that she had noticed her presence. She honestly didn't expect any less; as the leader of Konohagakure, the Godaime was a very busy person. So, Kyomi stood in front of the Godaime's desk, back straight, hands clasped behind her back and staring straight ahead, waiting to be acknowledged.

Finally, several minutes later, the Godaime set down her pen and looked up clasping her hands on the desk's surface. When she saw the kunoichi standing in front of her, the Godaime let a small smile slip across her features.

"Ah, Hatake-san," she said, her attention going back down to her desk as she started to sift through papers, obviously looking for something. "There you are." The Godaime continued to sift through papers, mumbling to herself every few seconds, before she suddenly pulled out a paper with a triumphant smile. "Here we go!" she exclaimed. "Now let's see..."

The Godaime began muttering to herself again as she looked over the paper that Kyomi can only guess was the mission listing. After another minute or so, the Godaime finally spoke again, this time raising her head and making eye contact, "Well, at the moment we don't have very many high ranking missions that need to be taken care of. Also, since you have just completed a two week long S-rank mission, I believe that you have earned some time off. With this in mind, I have decided to give you the next two days off. Come see me on Wednesday morning for your next mission. Until then, just relax. And that's an order." She added the last part with a knowing grin.

Kyomi smirked slightly under her mask before bowing. "Hai, Hokage-sama," she agreed.

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 2: The Genin**

_A few lightning fast hand seals and a quiet murmur of "__**Bunshin no jutsu**_Doppelganger Technique_)," later, there were ten Kyomi's standing in front of the Genin._

_The three fifteen-year-olds immediately tensed up and Neji--who had his Byakuugan activated-- scanned all of them, trying to figure out which was the real one. None of them seemed to have any flaws however, so they would have to go at this the old-fashioned way: take them out one at a time._

_Before any of the Genin could move however, each of the bunshin lifted up a hand and deftly threw a kunai. The Genin easily dodged all of the projectiles and then began their own attacks. They had a little trouble at first, as all of the bunshin seemed to be just as fast and agile as Kyomi herself, but they were eventually beginning to disperse the bunshin one by one. Finally, a few minutes later, there was only a single, deeply breathing, Kyomi left. Neji smirked and Lee and Tenten grinned triumphantly._

_Just then Neji began his final attack, completely ignoring his teammates and calling out, "You're in the range of--"_

_With a gasp Neji abruptly cut himself off and whirled around at the same time as Lee and Tenten. All three of them had heard the unmistakable sound of metal whizzing through the air. Upon finishing his turn, Neji's eyes immediately widened at the site that greeted them. There were dozens of kunai and shuriken zooming towards them, and there behind the sharp blades, stood a wickedly grinning Kyomi. The real one._


	3. Chapter 2: The Genin

A/N: Hey everyone! This chapter has some action in it, so it should be interesting. Oh, and if any of you think that Kyomi appears a little weak for an ANBU in the battle in this chapter, just keep in mind that she's going up against _Genin_ and that she's holding back _a lot_. It's just a mock battle and she's just playing around with them, teaching them. Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Konoha no Shiroi Kiba literally means White Fang of Konoha. He is Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi and Kyomi's deceased father.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years

Chapter 2  
_The Genin_

* * *

As Kyomi blinked her eyes open, her mind was mostly blank of what to do. It was Monday morning, and the first day of her "vacation". She didn't really want to have to think right now, especially so early in the morning. Bedsides, she was on orders from the Hokage to rest.

She had been working a bit hard for the past several months, Kyomi thought as she rolled over in bed. She had been taking high-ranking mission after high-ranking mission. Now it was in the middle of spring, so at least it would be good weather outside for her break in work.

As these thoughts ran through Kyomi's head, her nose started twitching on its own. Her nose seemed more awake then she was. Suddenly, she realized why it was twitching and shot up in bed. It smelt pancakes.

Kyomi smiled dreamily and stumbled out of bed. She yanked her door open, not even bothering to close it behind her as she usually did. Shuffling through her apartment and toward the kitchen, she ignored the fact that she was barely even half awake, pancakes were calling her name. Her present state of awake-ness would have to wait. As she reached the kitchen, Kyomi saw a sight that she hadn't seen in a while and hadn't realized how much she had missed it.

Her brother was standing there in front of the stove, cooking breakfast.

Kyomi immediately began to salivate. A fact that most people didn't know about Kakashi was that he was an incredible cook. Honestly, it wasn't that surprising, considering he had been taking care of Kyomi by himself since she was three years old; you had to know how to cook to be in Kyomi's good graces.

As Kyomi slumped into one of the chairs around the small kitchen table in the corner of the room, Kakashi turned to look at her. It was quite obvious that he was grinning, even with his mask covering most of his face.

"Ne, when will breakfast be ready, Kakashi-nii-kun?" Kyomi questioned.

Kakashi continued to grin, "Maa maa, you're up early," he stated, completely ignoring her question, to her annoyance.

Kyomi glared half-heartedly at him. "I smelt pancakes. When will they be ready?" Her tone changed into a demanding one.

"Well," Kakashi laughed, making Kyomi glare even harder at him. "I think about now should be right."

Kakashi suddenly turned from the stove to fully face her, showing that he had two plates of pancakes ready. The pancakes were cooked to a beautifully perfect golden brown and were already buttered and smothered with syrup. If Kyomi hadn't been salivating before, she certainly was now.

As Kakashi set the two plates down, one before his seat and one before Kyomi's, Kyomi reached out toward her food, only to have her hand slapped away by her older brother.

"No," Kakashi said, glaring playfully. "Get something to drink first."

Kyomi scowled at Kakashi, still not fully awake, and dragged herself out of her chair and to the refrigerator, where she pulled out the milk carton. On the way back to the table she stopped to grabbed a mug off the counter.

Kyomi dropped into her seat with a thud and began to pour herself some milk, muttering "Sadistic bastard," under her breath while still scowling at Kakashi. Of course Kakashi just laughed and began to eat his own breakfast. Kyomi quickly followed suit, and soon the both of them were happily eating the delicious breakfast.

"So," Kyomi began a few minutes later and half way into her second pancake. "Why were _you_ up so early? I though that you usually liked to sleep in. After all, you're always late for everything." At the last sentence, she glared at him; she wasn't fond of that particular trait he picked up.

Kakashi shrugged. "I have to meet my Genin team today."

"Oh yeah, you have to teach brats. I forgot about that." Kyomi grinned. "I laugh at you." Kakashi just rolled his eyes. "So, how long have you been their sensei for?"

"About two years now, though I can't believe that it's actually been that long. Do you have any idea how boring it is to watch them do D-rank missions all the time? I've come to look forward to C-rank ones, as sad as that sounds."

Kyomi laughed. "So that means they're what, 14 years old now? I would've thought that they'd have passed the Chuunin Exam by now."

"Not everyone passes through the ranks as quickly as you and I did," Kakashi replied with another roll of his eyes. "And besides, they did participate in the exam as rookies and _did_ make it all the way through to the third exam--before the invasion of course. That's pretty good for a 'bunch of brats', as you put it.

"Though their teamwork still needs some work, even after two years. After their first Chuunin Exam one of them tried to run away from Konoha, but fortunately, was brought back by his teammate before he got very far." He continued.

Kyomi shook her head sadly. "I guess there's one of those in every year, ne?" Kakashi nodded his head in mutual agreement. "Just one last thing: you said you're up earlier because you have to go meet the brats, but, as I said before, aren't you usually late for everything?"

"Oh, I'm not going to meet them straight away," Kakashi said with a happy grin. "I'm going to stop by the Memorial Stone first."

Kyomi let out an irritated sigh, "As usual." Kakashi's grin turned a little sad as she continued. "You don't have to always act like Obito used to, you know."

"I know." Kakashi sighed sadly. "But it's the least I can do to honor his memory."

Kyomi gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Whatever man, it's your choice."

"Well," Kakashi said after a few more minutes of silence. "I better get going, so I'll see you later, alright?"

"Yeah, Hokage-sama gave me the next two days off with orders to relax, so I'll probably just be hanging around." Kyomi gave Kakashi a little wave as he put his dishes in the sink and walked out of the room. "See you."

"Bye."

* * *

"Mmm," Kyomi sighed as she stretched her arms behind her head. At the moment she was sitting cross-legged on a wide tree stump on the edge of some training grounds. She had come there just to sit, relax, and think. She might exercise a little bit later, just to keep her muscles loose, but at the moment, she just wanted to sit and maybe meditate a little bit.

These thoughts were abruptly, and a bit rudely, broken into by someone yelling. Kyomi grudgingly wrenched one of her closed eyes open to glance across the field. When she saw a green smudge coming towards her, she promptly groaned. Why him? Why now? She depressingly thought.

"Yosh! Kyomi-chan!" Gai called as he stopped in front of her. Not a second later, three other shinobi stopped behind him.

"Hello Gai," Kyomi sighed, leaving out the use of a suffix, then she turned slightly and looked over the three other shinobi with that were him.

The first of them was a Hyuuga, if his pure white pupil-less eyes were anything to go by of course. He had long black hair that looked as if it was well taken care of, and a stoic expression covering his face.

The next one was a kunoichi, who was a bit shorter than the Hyuuga next to her. She had chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair that was held up in twin buns on her head. She was wearing a bright pink shirt - which Kyomi twitched at, being the avid hater of pink that she was - and blue pants. She had a rather sweet and smiling face, to the point that even Kyomi might not have guessed that she was a kunoichi if not for the hitai-ate on her forehead.

The third and last shinobi was the one who absolutely terrified Kyomi. He literally looked like a miniature clone of Gai, green jumpsuit, fuzzy eyebrows and all. He even had the same bright eyes and creepy smile that Gai had on at the moment. Though instead of looking at her, like the other shinobi and the kunoichi were, he was staring adoringly up at Gai.

All three of them looked to be around fifteen years old and they didn't have Chuunin vests, so Kyomi guessed that they were Genin. Gai's Genin, if her guess was right. And if it was, then Kyomi truly sympathized with the three...Well, expect for the Gai clone. He was still creeping her out.

"I didn't know that you were a Jounin sensei," Kyomi commented, wanting to see if her guess was right.

"Yosh! Of course I am! I must show the next generation the joy and power of youth!" Gai exclaimed, going into his strange pose and half blinding Kyomi with the flash of sunlight off his teeth.

The mini Gai clone smiled up at Gai with disturbing sparkles in his eyes. "Gai-sensei! You're so cool!"

"Lee!" Gai called out, turning to hug his young pupil. Kyomi shuddered.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

Kyomi then twitched as she looked on at the two, before turning to the other Genin and giving them a look of sympathy. Whoever had decided to make Gai a sensei must have been either half insane or completely wasted at the time.

The Hyuuga raised his eyebrow slightly at her look, while the kunoichi gave an amused smile before bowing slightly to Kyomi.

"I apologize for them..." she said.

Kyomi just smirked. "Don't worry about it; I should be used to it by now," she said. Kyomi glanced at the two again for a second before adding under her breath, "Emphasis on '_should_'." She then turned back to the two Genin and gave a polite bow in reply to the kunoichi's. "I'm Kyomi."

"Tenten," the girl replied with a second bow.

The Hyuuga hesitated for a moment, before courtesy seemed to win him over and he also bowed to Kyomi. "Hyuuga Neji."

Gai, who had just finished his rendezvous with his student, was now watching Kyomi and the other two Genin. He chose that moment to speak up, "And this," he exclaimed. "Is Rock Lee!"

"Yosh!" yelled the boy in reply, pumping his fist in the air proudly.

Kyomi raised an eyebrow at his actions before turning an accusing glare on Gai. "He reminds me of you when you were younger," she said wryly. "A little too much."

"Yes!" Gai yelled. "I must pass on the power of youth!"

"Mm-hmm," Kyomi murmured under her breath. "Then get a girl." Out loud however, she simply replied, "Sure."

Gai smiled going into his "nice guy" pose, completely unaware of the thoughts going through Kyomi's head or the embarrassment of his other two students.

Rolling her eyes slightly, Kyomi then raised her hand in a small little wave, "Well then, I guess I should be go-"

"Ah! Kyomi!" Gai bellowed, oblivious to the fact that Kyomi had been speaking. "It's been years since we sparred! In fact, I think the last time was back when you were still a Chuunin...Hmm, that's an idea! Why don't you test my young students?"

Kyomi sighed. "Well, I don't know..."

"Oh, yes! Yes!" Lee yelled enthusiastically. "That would be awesome!"

Looking at Lee's excited face and Tenten's curious-almost-verging-on-eager expression - Neji was still looking like a stoic iceberg -, Kyomi's resolve immediately started breaking down. For some reason she had always had a soft spot for kids, even if these three weren't all that much younger than her.

Finally, after another few seconds, Kyomi sighed again. "Alright," she replied. "I don't really have anything else to do right now anyway."

"Yes!" Lee shouted, pumping his fist into the air. Tenten's face also broke out into a grin and Neji - despite how he tried to cover it up - also looked a little bit interested. Gai stood off to the side, beaming proudly at his three young pupils.

"...But you're an ANBU, correct?" Neji said after a moments pause. "Won't there be an even bigger gap between our skills, then if we were facing a Jounin?"

Kyomi nodded thoughtfully, mentally noting that Neji was pretty sharp and more than likely had been one of the top students in his graduating class. "True..." Kyomi said slowly, "Though it is in fact possible for three Genin working together to defeat a Jounin." Kyomi shrugged before suddenly breaking out into a grin. "Then why don't we make this a little bit more interesting, hmm? I'll use only the Ninjutsu that are taught in the academy and only kunai and shuriken in the fight. You three on the other hand, may use any techniques or weapons that you'd like. How does that sound?" Kyomi's eyes were almost twinkling by the time that she finished, excited that this might be a bit of a challenge for her.

Lee's and Tenten's eyes widened at the sentence, and Neji started smirking. This would definitely be interesting.

"Deal," Neji supplied for his team.

Kyomi nodded tersely, a small grin crossing her face. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Gai grinning even more excitedly at his Genin trio - if that was even possible. She was already pretty sure that the majority of the citizens of Konoha would be blinded by his smile.

"Well," Kyomi said, abruptly leaping back and pulling out two kunai before sliding into a defensive stance. "Shall we then?" Her grin widened even further as she added, "Oh, and attack as though you mean to kill or you'll never stand a chance!", unknowingly using the same words that her older brother had just a few years prior.

The three Genin moved into Taijutsu stances as well and Kyomi quickly analyzed them, to get an idea of their styles. Lee was in a stance that she recognized from the spars she'd had with Gai, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. She'd probably have to watch his speed and strength though. Tenten was in a stance that she didn't recognize, but resembled that of a few of the weapon users she'd encountered. She didn't see any weapons on her at the moment however, so Kyomi was a bit wary. Finally, Neji was in a stance that Kyomi immediately recognized as the Hyuuga's Juuken. She'd have to be a bit careful with him as she didn't know his level of skill or even whether he was a branch or main house member.

Before another word could be said, Lee darted forward with a yell, leaving his teammates behind and obviously using all of his strength and speed straight out. Kyomi flipped back from Lee's initial punch, and then proceeded to continue to dodge all of his attacks, which she noted were solely Taijutsu. He must be the boy that she had heard about that had been born without the ability to use chakra. But he had continued to try to become a shinobi and was now a Taijutsu specialist? Interesting.

Abruptly, Kyomi pumped some chakra into her hand to reinforce its strength and then reached out and grabbed onto Lee's wrist, stopping his incoming punch. Without pausing for even a moment, she then twisted his arm around behind his back and forced him down onto his knees. Lee cried out in surprise and pain and tried to pull away, but Kyomi held him firmly.

Still gripping him tightly, Kyomi then said in a calm voice just loud enough for Tenten and Neji on the other side of the clearing to hear, "Lesson #1: Never charge straight into a fight, especially if you have no idea what potential your enemy has. Also, never reveal your true skills to your enemy until you understand how your opponent moves and whether or not you are up to their level. Never, in any situation, should you underestimate your opponent or overestimate yourself. This has proven to be a deadly mistake for countless shinobi."

Then, in a slightly quieter voice Kyomi continued on to Lee, "You overestimated yourself and underestimated me. You assumed that your speed and strength would be equal to or higher than mine and didn't stop to check if this was true. That was your mistake."

Kyomi then back flipped away, landing in the center of the clearing once more. Carefully, Lee stood back up, massaging his wrist and watching Kyomi warily. With a spurt of speed, he was suddenly standing by his two teammates again.

Kyomi grinned at them, letting her longer than average canines slip over her lower lip. She had often been compared to the Inuzuka for that fact, but it was just something that ran in the family. She was a Hatake after all, and daughter of Konoha no Shiroi Kiba**(1)**.

"Well?" Kyomi said, grin widening even more. "Are we just going to stand her all day or what?"

That seemed to break the three Genin as they began to run at her. Lee and Tenten were attacking together, Kyomi noted offhandedly, while Neji was attacking on his own. Well then, she'd just have to remedy that, wouldn't she?

Lee was once again using only Taijutsu to attack her on her left and Tenten was close behind him, pulling out a scroll, though from where Kyomi had no idea. Neji was on her right side, using his family's traditional style and seemingly trying to avoid associating himself with his teammates in whatever way possible.

Kyomi immediately narrowed her eyes at the supposed team. This wasn't some split-up-and-conquer strategy, but rather just the way they acted. And that definitely wasn't good. As the two boys reached her, each on either side, she immediately dodged backwards; narrowly avoiding Neji's chakra enhanced palm and Lee's powerful fist. It was then that she saw Tenten leap above them with her scroll opened up, that cued the two boys to jump backwards. Quickly enough to impress Kyomi, a rain a many different weapons suddenly began their decent to the ground, appearing from Tenten's stretched out scroll.

Kyomi quickly started to move away, but soon found that she also needed her kunai to block some of the weapons. When the attack finally stopped, Kyomi had several cuts adorning her body. '_Heh,_' Kyomi thought. '_A Hyuuga, a Taijutsu specialist, and a weapons mistress. What an interesting combination._'

"Not bad," Kyomi said grudgingly, the compliment was lost on the three Genin, and none of them really knew how hard it was to get a compliment out of Kyomi or how long it had been since she had last given one. She was too hard on herself and others, most people said, but Kyomi mostly ignored that fact. You couldn't get anywhere without a little hard work.

Tenten nodded happily in acceptance of Kyomi's words and the three Genin seemed to relax slightly. It was only a small difference, but it was enough to make Kyomi's grin return full force as she eagerly took the opportunity. A few lightning fast hand seals and a quiet murmur of "**Bunshin no jutsu** (_Doppelganger Technique_)," later, there were ten Kyomi's standing in front of the Genin.

The three fifteen-year-olds immediately tensed up and Neji - who had his Byakuugan activated - scanned all of them, trying to figure out which was the real one. None of them seemed to have any flaws however, so they would have to go at this the old-fashioned way: take them out one at a time.

Before any of the Genin could move however, each of the bunshin lifted up a hand and deftly threw a kunai. The Genin easily dodged all of the projectiles and then began their own attacks. They had a little trouble at first, as all of the bunshin seemed to be just as fast and agile as Kyomi herself, but they were eventually beginning to disperse the bunshin one by one. Finally, a few minutes later, there was only a single, deeply breathing, Kyomi left. Neji smirked and Lee and Tenten grinned triumphantly.

Just then Neji began his final attack, completely ignoring his teammates and calling out, "You're in the range of--"

With a gasp Neji abruptly cut himself off and whirled around at the same time as Lee and Tenten. All three of them had heard the unmistakable sound of metal whizzing through the air. Upon finishing his turn, Neji's eyes immediately widened at the site that greeted them. There were dozens of kunai and shuriken zooming towards them, and there behind the sharp blades, stood a wickedly grinning Kyomi. The real one.

The blades rapidly loomed ever near and Neji's brain worked hastily, trying to quickly find out what had happened. The Kyomi that he and his teammates had just been cornering disappeared behind them however, then it all clicked into place and Neji's eyes widen even further in sudden realization of what had occurred.

Kyomi had created eleven bunshin instead of the ten that they had originally thought. She had used the cover of the smoke as the bunshin appeared to use a **Henge no Jutsu** (_Transformation Technique_) to change her self into a kunai. She had been one of the kunai that the bunshin had thrown and thus was behind them without him or his teammates noticing. Neji would have seen her with his Byakuugan, but she had been in his blind spot. Whether her being in his blind spot was on purpose or not, he didn't know, but he had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach that it hadn't been a coincidence. But then, how much could she know about the Byakuugan?

All of these thoughts flew through Neji's mind as the projectiles grew ever closer and similar thoughts were going through the minds of the others two Genin as well. All of them knew that there was no time at all to dodge or even to block very well.

The kunai and shuriken slammed into the three Genin, only minimally injuring them thanks to Kyomi's excellent aim. Kyomi herself smirked at them for a second before she turned her attention to Neji who was struggling to sit up at the base of the tree he had slammed into.

"Lesson #2: When you are alone on missions, then you can only rely on yourself. However, when you have teammates, like now, you must work with them. As a shinobi, you must use all resources available to you. When you have teammates, they are your immediate resources. You must use them, work with them, and rely on them. If you do anything else you _will_ end up in the dust...or worse."

Neji glared up at her slightly, but Kyomi only smirked in reply before turning her attention to Tenten and Lee.

"Lesson #3: You should never limit yourself to only one area of skill," Kyomi stated and then looked directly at Tenten. "There may be a time when you can't use weapons and must rely on your other shinobi skills. However, if you have focused completely on your weaponry skills, then you are, in short, screwed."

Kyomi paused for a second to let that sink in, and then looked to Lee, "There may be a time when you are unable to completely use your Taijutsu, or a time when you face an opponent who is vastly superior to yourself in skills. At this time, you must use your other shinobi skills, which, in your case, would be weapons. However, if you have focused completely on your Taijutsu, then you would be, once again, screwed."

With that said, Kyomi leaned back on her heels and crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for the three to get up. After a bit of struggling, they did. The three glanced at each other for a moment before they finally did what they really should have in the beginning and jumped off into the woods.

Closing her eyes and expanding her senses, Kyomi tried to see if she could sense any of them and/or their chakra. Surprisingly, she couldn't. Kyomi smirked at this; maybe they would actually stand a chance. Of course, as soon as they got within a certain range of her she would automatically sense them, but this allowed them to gather and come up with a real plan. Perhaps that Hyuuga would even finally get it and work together with his teammates.

So Kyomi stood there in once place with her eyes closed for the next few minutes, patiently waiting for the Genin to come out. She had all day after all - two days in fact, but that wasn't the point. However, after nearly ten minutes Kyomi was entertaining the idea to just start to walk off and see how the Genin reacted. It wasn't that she was bored or anything, but the idea had popped into her head and was starting to sound really amusing.

Just a small smirk crossed her face at this idea, Kyomi's head suddenly snapped to the side, eyes opening. There! She could sense them just about 20 meters away in a bush on the other side of the clearing.

In the large bush, the three Genin abruptly stiffened as Kyomi stared at them, even though she couldn't see them directly. How had she sensed them?! They had put almost all of their stealth training into sneaking close to her without her noticing.

'_But then again,_' Tenten thought, trying to be reasonable. '_She is an ANBU and she's on high alert right now, so it's not really all that much of a surprise._'

Neji seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he tensed his body, ready to put their plan into action. The three waited just a few more seconds - as Kyomi continued to bore a whole through the bush with her gaze - before all three shot out on some unheard signal.

Tenten took Kyomi's left side, a large mace in hand, while Lee took her right and Neji headed straight for her. They all attacked simultaneously, trying to either lower her guard of get at least a single hit in. Kyomi just dodged them all however, gracefully sliding away from Lee's and Tenten's hits and even jumping _over_ Tenten's mace at one point.

Neji on the other hand held back slightly, still helping to drive Kyomi back but not really attacking. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity. And the second he saw it, he dove straight for it.

Seeing Neji lunging towards her and the other two backing off slightly, Kyomi's eyes immediately widened. She definitely recognized that attack. Palm open and heading straight toward her Kyomi decided to do the only thing that she could do at such a close range; she shoved as much chakra as she could through her tenketsu, covering her entire body in a thin and only just barely visible layer of chakra.

Neji smirked superiorly and completely ignored the chakra, not thinking that it would do anything. However, as soon as his hand hit her upper right shoulder, he was completely shocked...literally. Instead of closing up her tenketsu, the chakra around Kyomi sort of swelled up at that point that Neji's hand was touching her and shoved towards his hand, giving him a small electrical shock and forcefully throwing him back several meters. As Neji recovered, he and his two teammates stared up wide-eyed at Kyomi. That was different.

"H-h-how?!" Neji stuttered. "That's not possible! That technique cannot be out right beaten!"

Kyomi just rolled her eyes at this statement, before sighing. "Lesson #4: You should never believe that a technique is unbeatable simply because it has never been defeated before," Kyomi calmly stated. "You should always assume that there is some counter technique and prepare a backup plan in case your opponent is the one who knows that counter technique. Arrogance will never get you anywhere in a battle, except maybe six feet under in a nice cold coffin. And always remember that there will be someone stronger than you in the world. It is a simple fact of life."

Neji's eyes widened even more for a second before narrowing. Was she calling him arrogant?! He wasn't arrogant, just...confident... Pushing all of those thoughts out of his mind, Neji forced himself up with a growl and got into formation with his teammates.

"But still," Neji continued, pushing for answers. "How would you know enough about the Hyuuga to come up with a counter technique?"

Kyomi chuckled. "Well," she replied. "Back when I was a Genin one of my teammates was a Hyuuga. I sparred with him often and eventually developed the technique. Unfortunately it takes extreme chakra control and a lot of raw chakra to perform. I guess since I'm getting kind of low on chakra now, I should wrap this up quickly, ne?"

Kyomi smirked at them, thoroughly amused, before quickly forming a set of seals and muttering something under her breath. The Genin tensed, not recognizing the seals for the technique and then their eyes widened and they froze. All three were mentally freaking out, Lee even more so than the others. He couldn't see anything, he couldn't feel anything, and he couldn't even feel himself breathing. It was as if, for all purposes, he was unconscious. And yet, he could still think through out it all.

Tenten and Neji were experiencing the exact same thing, but both were quickly able to realize that they were in Genjutsu and break out without too much effort, as the technique was pretty low level. However, as soon as they came to their senses, they were quite surprised; Kyomi was standing behind the two of them, a kunai at each of their necks.

"I win."

Tenten blinked in surprise and Neji scowled, trying to glare a hole in the ground beneath him. Kyomi grinned before turning to Lee and releasing the Genjutsu that was still on him. He fell to the floor before looking around in confusion. When he saw Kyomi standing over his teammates he immediately let his head drop.

Kyomi shook her head sadly and said to him, "Lesson #5: You should familiarize yourself with all shinobi fields, whether or not you can perform them. This way you can recognize attacks that your enemies may use, as well as any Genjutsu that they may perform. In your case, you should definitely study up on different types of Genjutsu so that you can recognize them quickly and learn to get out of them as fast as possible."

"Bravo! Bravo!" Gai cheered loudly to his pupils as he ran towards them from where he was watching on the other side of the clearing. "You did so well!"

Neji growled quietly under his breath, before realization suddenly struck him. "Wait," he said, turning to Kyomi with a smirk. "You said that you would only use the jutsu taught in the academy, but that last technique was definitely _not_ taught to us. No Genjutsu was."

"Ah, ah, ah," Kyomi said, shaking her finger at Neji and smirking widely. "What I said was that I would only use the _Ninjutsu_ taught at the academy. I never agreed to anything about Genjutsu."

Neji glared at the 19-year-old in front of him, scowling darkly. "Hn."

Kyomi's smirk widened a little more and she then turned to Gai. "Well, my assessment of your students is very good," she informed. "I'd say that they are all easily Chuunin level."

Gai beamed down at all four of them and suddenly moved forward to hug Kyomi. Kyomi immediately jumped backwards, narrowly dodging a very gruesome fate.

"...Yeah..." Kyomi said slowly. "Well, I should get going now. I'll see you around." She waved to the three Genin and the certifiably insane Jounin before shoving her hands into her pockets and beginning to walk off. She didn't get more than a few steps however, before she paused and glanced over her should at Neji. "Oh, and you really should learn some more techniques and styles than those of your clan's. While very skilled, you're too predictable right now."

Neji continued to glare darkly at her, but Kyomi just turned back around with a content smirk and continued out of the clearing.

* * *

Kyomi sighed as her stomach grumbled for the fifth time. She had been walking around the village for a little while and was staring to get really hungry. It was nearly lunch time anyway. Suddenly smelling ramen, Kyomi grinned; she hadn't had any ramen in quite a while, and right now it sounded pretty appetizing. Following the waft of ramen, Kyomi briskly walked down the street before stopping in front of a nice little ramen stand.

"Ichiraku," Kyomi read, looking at the stand's name. Hmm, interesting; Kyomi didn't think that she'd ever been here before. Shrugging, Kyomi made her way into the stand and sat down at one of the stools.

Almost immediately, an aging man walked up to her. "What would you like?" he asked politely.

"One miso ramen please," Kyomi said, distractedly glancing around the shop. It seemed that she was the only one there at the moment. A few minutes later, her order was sitting in front of her. Kyomi nodded at the older man thankfully and picked up her chopsticks. Just as she started to eat, an orange blur dashed into the small stand and sat a few seats down from her.

"Hey old man!" a young voice yelled. "Give me some ramen!" Kyomi twitched slightly at the volume of the voice, but was secretly glad that at least someone was ditching all the formality. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how the older man would react. Surprisingly, he laughed. It seemed as if he was used to such treatment.

"The usual, Naruto?" he asks. An eager nod was his reply. Still chuckling, the older man turned around and began to fill out the order, whatever it was.

A little curious, Kyomi glanced at the orange figure from the corner of her eye and continued to eat her ramen. The orange thing turned out to be a young-ish boy, perhaps only fourteen years old. He had wild blonde hair, sticking out from under a blue Konoha hitai-ate and bright sapphire blue eyes, sparkling with life and perfectly matching the large smile stretched across his face. His outfit was a pair of the standard blue shinobi sandals, orange pants, and an orange and blue jacket, mostly orange. It was certainly an interesting ensemble, especially for a shinobi. Shrugging it off as none of her business, Kyomi turned back to her meal, ignoring everything else around her.

A few minutes later, just as she finished her lunch, Kyomi heard a satisfied sigh to her left. Giving a quick glance to her side, Kyomi saw that it was the blonde boy, Naruto. He was leaning back in his chair with a content grin on his face. The surprising thing, however, was that he had a large pile of bowls in front of him. If Kyomi hadn't seen him come in herself, she would have sworn that it would have taken him all morning to eat that much food.

'_Meh, boys tend to eat tons,_' Kyomi thought, her eye glazing over slightly before she abruptly pulled herself out of memory lane with a mental scowl. That was one place she'd really rather not travel down at the moment.

Pulling out her wallet, Kyomi set down enough money for the meal and started to stand up when a groan suddenly echoed through the stand.

"Oh man!" the young blonde cried out. The old man looked at him from over the counter and deadpanned when he noticed the boy's devastated stare into his wallet.

"You're out of money again, aren't you?" the old man asked sighing.

"Erm..." the blonde sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, tensing up to run off.

Not wanting there to be a scene, Kyomi rolled her eyes and pulled her wallet back out of her pocket. "How much?" she asked the man with a sigh. Both the blonde and the older man jerked around to stare in surprise. "How much does he owe you?"

The blonde, still staring wide-eyed at the older girl, was unable to say a thing, so the older man just mumbled out the price. Kyomi held back wince, knowing that it'll be a hole in her wallet, but paid anyway.

As the older man turned around the blond finally stuttered out, "W-why did you do that?"

Kyomi shrugged, "You couldn't pay. I had some extra money." Okay, so the last part was a lie, but he didn't need to know that.

Naruto stared warily at her for a moment, unsure of her motives, but finally seemed to deem her sincere and grinned widely in gratitude.

"Heh heh, thanks!" he said happily. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

Kyomi chuckled. "Kyomi," she replied. "...You're a Genin, right?" Kyomi asked after a moment.

"...Yeah..." Naruto said, mentally flinching and wondering if she would recognize him and demand her money back. Thus, her next sentence was a complete surprise.

"Then shouldn't you be meeting with your team right now?" It was nearly eleven in the morning after all.

Naruto blinked, surprised that someone was actually speaking civilly to him, but decided to just be glad that she was in fact talking to him and not glaring at him. So, he replied, "We meet later." Not really a lie since the three of them had decided to take there time and meet just before Kakashi showed up. After all, why waste time waiting around for someone who always shows up several hours late?

Kyomi just shrugged before sitting back down on her stool and getting into a conversation with the young shinobi. Besides, she had the time.

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 3: The Sensei**

_Just as Naruto had said, they were nearly at Team 7's meeting spot. In fact, as they cleared a curve in the path the two were walking down, a little bridge running over a small creek appeared not 10 feet from them. Standing on the bridge were three people, two of them Naruto's age and the third much older; a Jounin by his vest._

_Kyomi started to study the two Genin, for that was what they obviously were, when she did a double take on the third figure. Letting her mouth fall open in shock, Kyomi just stared for a few seconds before turning to Naruto._

_"He's your sensei?" she asked incredulously._


	4. Chapter 3: The Sensei

A/N: Welcome back! This is the chapter where the main arc of the story starts (**grins**). As will start to become clear, half of this story will actually revolve around Naruto. Kyomi is still the main character, of course, but Naruto's like the...co-main character. You'll see that quite a few chapters will be told from his point of view. Well, please read, _review_, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Imouto means "younger sister" or "little sister".

(2) - I know that in the canon those lines aren't actually scars. They are in this story however, due to certain reason that won't be explained quite yet.

(3) - Obaba means "old lady" or "Grandma".

(4) - Ero-sennin means "perverted hermit".

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years

Chapter 3  
_The Sensei_

* * *

With a sigh, Kyomi slowly trudged down the dirt path through Konoha's forest. Around her, an orange ball of energy was jumping up and down, bubbling with excitement and rambling on. About what, she had no idea; she had learned a while ago to tune him out whenever he rambled, which turned out to be most of the time anyway. It was almost as if the boy rarely had anyone to talk to!

Holding back another sigh, Kyomi let her head drop down. She really had no idea why she was there, walking with him. She had just been talking to Naruto when, bam, she found herself walking down the path towards one of the shinobi training grounds, agreeing to meet Naruto's team. Why? She, once again, had no idea.

"Come on, Kyomi-san!" Naruto said with a wide grin. "We're almost there!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kyomi grumbled, offhandedly wondering where the kid got all his energy from.

Just as Naruto had said, they were nearly at Team 7's meeting spot. In fact, as they cleared a curve in the path the two were walking down, a little bridge running over a small creek appeared not ten feet from them. Standing on the bridge were three people, two of them Naruto's age and the third much older; a Jounin by his vest.

Kyomi started to study the two Genin, for that was what they obviously were, when she did a double take on the third figure. Letting her mouth fall open in shock, Kyomi just stared for a few seconds before turning to Naruto.

"_He's_ your sensei?" she asked incredulously.

Naruto blinked, surprised at her question, but just as he opened his mouth to reply, Kakashi, who had turned toward them when he had heard Kyomi speak, broke in.

"Eh, Kyomi-chan? What are you doing here?"

"You!" Kyomi growled, turning from the confused blonde Genin. She pointed an accusing finger at Kakashi. "You're Naruto-kun's sensei?" Kyomi then turned back to Naruto and put a hand on his should, an apologetic look on her face. "I pity you," she told him. "I really do."

Kakashi sweatdropped. "Imouto**(1)**," he began. "What are you doing here?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to be shocked; his mouth fell open and the other two Genin on the bridge mirrored his actions. "Imouto?" Naruto gasped. "You're his sister?!" He closed his mouth and glared at Kyomi, crossing his hands over his chest in a stubborn gesture. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Kyomi shrugged and, now over her shock, she let her stance fall into a nonplussed and relaxed one. "How was I supposed to know that Kakashi-nii-kun was your sensei? It's not like _you_ told me his name," she shot back.

Naruto turned his head away, stubbornly sticking his lower lip out. Kyomi just chuckled in reply, ruffling his hair a bit with her hand. Naruto protested loudly of course, but was ignored. Instead, Kyomi looked past her older brother to study the other two Genin.

The first was a kunoichi with emerald green eyes and short pink hair. Kyomi flinched at the hair color, as she had been an avid hater of pink since she was very young. It came of a certain incident, which Kyomi would forever be tightlipped about. The young kunoichi--probably about Naruto's age, so she couldn't be more than fourteen--was wearing a mid-thigh length red dress with a pair of navy blue shorts beneath it. Her hitai-ate was worn on top of her head like some fancy headband.

Turning from her, Kyomi looked to the last Genin and promptly froze. Her eyes widened in shock and her breathe started coming in short gasps. '_Itachi..._' Or at least that was her first impression. He looked nearly exactly like a short-haired Itachi. Granted, he didn't have the two scars beneath his eyes**(2)**--which had in fact come from the same incident that caused Kyomi to hate, and even fear, pink--but everything else about him down to the stoic expression on his face was exactly as she remembered it.

Looking a bit closer at the boy, however, Kyomi saw that there were a few minor differences. The largest was the Itachi-look-alike's stance; his was more cocky and arrogant rather than Itachi's silently confident one. There was only one other person that this could be then: Sasuke, Itachi's little brother. Kyomi let a small breath out and glanced at Kakashi. He refused to meet her eyes. Kyomi had to hold back an annoyed growl then, and struggled not to let her emotions show. Why hadn't he told her that little Sasuke-kun was on his team?! Kyomi hadn't seen the young boy for nearly nine years.

Pushing thoughts of Itachi out of her mind, Kyomi looked the older Sasuke over. He was wearing a pair of cream colored shorts and a navy blue shirt--with the standard Uchiha fan on it of course. Itachi was probably the only Uchiha she had ever known not to have the symbol somewhere on his clothing. Kyomi had once heard from Itachi himself that there were a few Uchiha who even had the famed symbol all over their _boxers_ of all things. Talk about obsessed.

Kyomi then turned from the two Genin and focused back on her older brother. She gave him a meaningful look, one that promised pain later for not telling her exactly who his pupils were. Kakashi just chuckled nervously, his hand rubbing the back of his head apprehensively.

"Erm...Yes, well..." Kakashi coughed uneasily, before turning his attention to the three Genin. He then turned serious again, or at least as serious as one such as himself could. "Sasuke, you are going to be working with me again today, as there are a few things I want to teach you. Sakura, I believe you are scheduled to train with Tsunade-sama...?"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said with a polite nod to said man.

"Good. You can head over to the Hokage tower now then."

The pink haired girl complied with a wave to the Uchiha and a polite little bow to Kyomi as they were new acquaintances, before dashing out of view.

Kakashi finally turned to the short, blonde Genin. "Hmm, Naruto..." he said slowly, obviously thinking. After a moment his eyes drifted towards his sister and his face immediately brighten with the appearance of an idea. "Kyomi-chan!" he said happily. "Would you mind taking over Naruto-kun's training for today?"

Kyomi shrugged. "Sure, why not. I've got nothing else to do for today."

"Great!" Kakashi replied. Then, to Naruto, "We haven't got any missions today, so when Kyomi-chan lets you go you can head home. Have fun! Now, follow me Sasuke-kun. We'll be using a different training ground today for what I have in mind..."

As the voices of the two Sharingan users faded out of hearing range, Naruto began to pout. Why did his sensei always train Sasuke?! Why was it never him! But just as quickly as the pout appeared on his face it disappeared. At least now he would get to train with his new friend. If she was Kakashi's sister and Kakashi himself asked her to train him, then she must be strong, right? The memory of Kakashi recommending that that baka Ebisu to teach him flashed across his mind, but Naruto quickly pushed it away in favor of more hopeful thoughts. At the very least he had been introduced to the idea of water walking by that closet pervert.

Glancing up at the silver haired kunoichi, Naruto wondered why he hadn't seen her resemblance to his sensei earlier. Her hair, while much longer than Kakashi's, was exactly the same color as the older Jounin's. Their eyes were completely different colors however, hers being a chilling ice blue and his a charcoal black. Kyomi still had the same laid back air around her though...

Naruto shrugged out of this reverie and grinned up at Kyomi. "So," he asked. "What are you going to teach me!"

"Hmm," Kyomi said thoughtfully, plopping down onto the grass carelessly. "Well, to start with, do you know the tree exercise?"

"Of course!"

Kyomi just motioned to a nearby tree, obviously asking for a demonstration. The hyperactive blonde complied, quickly running up a tree and then back down. As he stood in front of Kyomi once more, said kunoichi tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Good, good," she said distractedly. "How about water walking?"

Naruto nodded once more, though this time without words. He jumped over to the stream and landed on top of the water, already knowing that Kyomi would want proof. He walked around in circles on the water for a few moments before jumping back up onto the bridge's hand railing and then leaping over to where Kyomi was still sitting.

Kyomi nodded her head in approval. She continued to think for a few minutes, with Naruto fidgeting in the background--as he almost never could keep still--before the young blonde couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Come on!" Naruto yelled. "Teach me a jutsu! Teach me a jutsu!"

Kyomi shrugged, not really having a better idea. "Alright...Hmm, but which one?" And she once again lapsed into silence.

Naruto stared at her a few minutes, surprised. '_Great!_' he thought. '_She's just liked Kakashi-sensei!_' Just as he began to sigh however, Kyomi leapt up onto her feet.

"Ah! I know the perfect one!" she exclaimed. Naruto perked up at this, straightening up and waiting for Kyomi to speak.

When she just continued to stand there, grinning, however, he immediately spoke up. "Well, what is it?" Naruto asked loudly, waving his arms around wildly. "What awesome kick-ass technique is it?"

Kyomi continued to grin. "It's a jutsu called **Doton:**** Retsudotensho** (_Earth Style: Split Earth Turn around Palm_)."

Naruto blinked. "Erm, okay...What does it do?" he asked, still mulling over the interesting name. "It doesn't sound that powerful."

Kyomi snickered. "Don't let titles fool you!" she told him in a sing-song voice. "This is one of my favorite techniques because it's so versatile. It is only a C-rank, but the only limit to its range is your chakra." She continued to grin, obviously excited. "What it does is allow you to control any and all nearby rocks to surround and attack the enemy with. Of course there are many other ways to use this particular technique, but that's what it was originally made for."

By the time Kyomi finished, Naruto was gaping. "That's so cool!" Naruto yelled, pumping a fist into the air in his excitement. "You have to teach me!"

Kyomi laughed, "What did I say I was going to do?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, laughing as well. His expression quickly turned expectant. "Well?"

"Hmm," Kyomi said, looking the blonde Genin up and down and ignoring what he had said. "Well, despite being only a C-rank, this jutsu is pretty difficult to master because it requires extreme control. While you do seem to have a pretty high level of control, especially considering the amount of chakra you have, it might not be enough for you to be able to do the technique."

Naruto looked crestfallen. "Does that mean I can't learn it?" he asked quietly.

"Of course not!" Kyomi replied. "I said I was going to teach you a jutsu, so I damn well am! All this means is that you're going to have to work hard and improve your control over your chakra first." Naruto grinned again, excitedly waiting for the sliver haired kunoichi to finish. "...Hmm, well, how does Kakashi-kun normally have you prepare for learning a new jutsu?"

"Huh?" Naruto said dumbly, blinking again. "...Prepare us?"

"...Yes...You know, whenever he teaches you a jutsu?"

"Erm..." Naruto hesitated shifting his eyes away. His paused for a moment before answering in a quiet voice, completely unlike his usual one, "Kakashi-sensei...hasn't...taught me...any jutsu..."

Kyomi stared at him, her face wiped of any emotions. "...Then what does he do when he teaches you nearly every day."

"Well..." the blonde Genin hesitated again. "He usually has us spar against each other, works on our chakra control, or has us go on missions. Other than that he just takes Sasuke-teme off to train." Naruto's hair shadowed his face for a moment, cover his expression. "...And then Sakura goes off to train with Obaba-san**(3)**..." When he looked up again however, a large grin was stretched over his face. "But that's okay because Ero-sennin**(4)** trains me whenever he's in Konoha!" However, the smile didn't hide the sad pain in his eyes, especially when he murmured a last sentence, "Even though that's that not very often..."

Kyomi blinked at the two latter names that Naruto had said--Obaba-san and Ero-sennin--wondering who they were, before sighing and rubbing the back of her neck. She really wasn't that great with people and emotions, and she worried that this situation might be over her head. "So then...Kakashi-kun has not taught you a single jutsu yet?" Kyomi asked. "Even though you've been in his care for over two years?"

Naruto coughed slightly and, looking away again, said in that same small voice, "...Yes..." And then, brightening again, "But our Taijutsu and chakra control has really increased!"

Kyomi sighed once more, squatting down to the blonde's level. "I think I may have an idea why." Naruto whipped his head back around, staring at the older kunoichi with wide, shocked eyes, appearing to be the lost young boy that he was rather than a shinobi, a warrior. "You may believe that he hasn't really taught you because he cares more about the "precious Uchiha" than you, but this isn't true. In fact, it's probably the opposite."

Naruto's eyes widened even more, truly surprised. He stared for a moment before his eyes narrowed into slits and he glared at the ANBU before him, his lips curled back into a snarl. "Then why," he demanded, uncharacteristically angry. "Does he always ignore me? Why won't he be the sensei he says he is for once and actually teach me something?"

Kyomi sighed again, rubbing her temples. "It's because you're so much like Obito." Naruto's snarl stopped at that, his glare falling from his face as he blinked in surprise and no small amount of confusion. "I haven't even known you for more than a few hours and I can see that as well," Kyomi continued, paying no attention to the blonde's reaction. "It's not so much the way you look--in fact your appearance is near opposite of his--, but your personality is almost exactly the same."

"...Obito...?" Naruto asked tentatively after a moment.

Kyomi blinked, as if breaking out of a stupor and looked back at the blonde from where she had been staring off into space. "Yes," she replied, a soft smile on her face. "Uchiha Obito. He was Kakashi-kun's teammate and, even though he wouldn't have admitted it at the time, his best friend." Kyomi's smile turned sad. "Unfortunately, he was killed on a mission...But...he still taught Kakashi-kun more than anyone else I think. As he lay half crushed under a boulder, Obito's last gift to Kakashi-kun was his sharingan. That's where he got it from if you didn't know.

"Well the point," Kyomi continued. "Is that loosing Obito crushed him. He even started adopting some of Obito's habits, such as being chronically late and always coming up with the most ridiculous excuses for it." Kyomi chuckled here and even Naruto had to grin. "Then seeing you, a near carbon copy of Obito's personality, come along and having to teach you everyday must be pretty hard on him, even if he doesn't show it. I guess that he's probably afraid to get to close and then loose his "best friend" again. Plus, you probably bring back a lot of difficult memories."

"I..." Naruto murmured, looking towards the tree line. "...I think I understand." He looked back at Kyomi, a smile, a _true_ one, not at all like the large idiotic ones that he gave everyday, on his face. "Thank you." His blue eyes sparkled with joy, relief washing through him at the thought that someone really did care for him. Looking at the kunoichi before him he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps it was two someones...

Kyomi grinned, chuckling slightly. "No problem!" On the inside, she was sighing with relief. Dealing with people, emotions, and such like were difficult and something that she hated dealing with. It was also so difficult to predict how people would react. "Now then, I guess it's up to me to get your chakra level up a bit more. This exercise should also help to get you ready for the jutsu as well."

"Really!" Naruto asked, bouncing in the balls of his feet, all smiles and energy again. Somehow the smile seemed less...forced...though this time. "What is it?"

"What you're going to do is 'wrap' your chakra around some rocks."

"...Huh?"

Kyomi chuckled at his completely lost expression. "Here, let me show you." She then picked up a medium sized pebble from the ground that fit perfectly in the palm of her hand. "You just take a rock like this and gather a small amount chakra in your hand." She then did just that, though it wasn't visible to the blonde. "And then you spread the chakra over the surface of the rock in a _thin_ layer. It has to be as thin as you can get it without the layer breaking. It's a very tedious balance."

"Don't worry," Naruto said with a large grin. "I'll get it easily! After all, I'm going to be the next Hokage!"

Kyomi sweatdropped at the outburst, somehow getting the feeling that the hyperactive Genin had barely listened to a word she had said. This premonition was proven to be true when the rock that Naruto had picked up just seconds before and was staring intently at was abruptly covered in a thick layer of chakra. A _very_ thick layer of chakra. Kyomi's eyes widened and she immediately leapt towards the blonde, but she was too late as at that exact second the rock suddenly exploded, sending small fragments everywhere. Naruto gasped in surprise, staring at his now empty hand in shock.

Kyomi sighed as she stepped back from the blonde, putting a hand on her face. "That's what I was trying to explain, Naruto-kun," she said, her voice slightly muffled from her hand. She looked back down at him, exasperation clear on her face. "You must only use a very small, yet precise amount of chakra. Too much and the rock will explode under the pressure, as you just saw, too little and the layer will break. It will take time and practice to get this balance right, but it will expand your control tremendously as you will learn how to call up only the exact amount that you need."

Naruto nodded excitedly, having now listened to what Kyomi was saying and determined to continue trying until he got it right. Then he could learn that _sweet_ jutsu. That reward ringing in his mind, Naruto picked up another rock and began to try the exercise again, more determined than ever.

Kyomi watched in amusement as the rock exploded once more, even though Naruto had used quite a bit less chakra. The boy wasn't deterred in the slightest however, and simply picked up another rock and tried again. As the kunoichi continued to watch the Genin try and fail time and time again, only a few times from having too little chakra, she couldn't help but feel a bit of pride swelling up in her chest. _She_ was teaching him. _She_ was the one spurring on such determination. Was this what Kakashi felt whenever he was teaching?

'_No, it couldn't be,_' Kyomi thought, a bit of bitterness entering her mind. '_Since Kakashi-kun never really teaches Naruto._' Grief over his best friend's death was no real excuse for Kakashi to neglect one of his students, especially after so many years.

At that moment a thought entered Kyomi's mind. It was a bit irrational, but perfect at that moment. A small almost indistinguishable smile lit up her face. "Naruto-kun," Kyomi called out, causing Naruto to halt from where he was brushing dust off his clothes from the latest explosion. "I have something important that I need to go attend to now, but I want you to continue with this exercise. I'll meet you tomorrow at the Ichiraku Ramen stand when you're done with your meeting with Kakashi-kun to see your progress."

"Alright!" Naruto said. "I'll have this mastered by then! You'll see!"

Kyomi grinned at him, chuckling again, before turning around and walking away. Naruto large grin turned into a soft smile as he watched her go and he murmured under his breath to himself, "Thank you. Thank you."

* * *

A few minutes later Kyomi found herself standing in front of the door to the Hokage's office for the third time in just two days. With a sigh she lifted up her hand and knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Kyomi did so, truly beginning to question her sanity for really going through with this idea. "...Hokage-sama..."

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 4: The Hokage**

_"...Well, that's interesting..." Kyomi suddenly said, breaking the Godaime out of her thoughts. Kyomi looked up and met the Godaime's honey brown eyes and a small smirk slid across her face. "And it explains a lot. He also must be pretty emotionally strong, then. It adds to his potential."_

_The Godaime had to stop a sigh of relief from escaping her. She returned the silver haired ANBU's smirk. "Yes, it does. Did you know that he was able to master Rasengan in a week?"_

_Kyomi's composed stance fell apart in a second as she openly gaped at the Hokage. "He knows the Yondaime's Rasengan!" The Godaime just continued to smirk. "And he learnt it in a week! It took the Yondaime Hokage years to master it!"_

_"Mm-hmm," the Godaime agreed, still grinning. "The brat was able to get Jiraiya to teach him. He also got the toad summoning contract from him."_

_Kyomi continued to gape. This was certainly a new development. Naruto was a lot more powerful than she had originally thought. And yet Kakashi still wasn't teaching him very much...? Kyomi was going to have to have _words_ with Kakashi when she got home. At least Naruto did have Jiraiya to teach him though..._


	5. Chapter 4: The Hokage

A/N: I'm back again! I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of review though... Sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but it's kind of a transitional chapter. Also sorry if the chapter confuses you a bit since Kyomi's thoughts on her decision (which you'll find out about in a moment) kind of go back and forth between liking what she did and dreading it. Well, enjoy the chapter and please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

--Oh, by the way, I've just posted a Naruto one-shot, so if you're interested please check it out! (**grins**)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Aniki means older brother.

(2) - Jinchuuriki means host, though literally it is "power of human sacrifice". Jinchuuriki are the human containers for Biju, the tailed demons.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years 

Chapter 4  
_The Hokage_

* * *

"Yes, Hatake-san?" the Godaime Hokage asked as Kyomi stood before her.

All of Kyomi's muscles were tense as she forcefully stopped herself from fidgeting. What in Kami's name made her come do this? This had to be the worst idea that she'd ever had. Kyomi knew that she used to be prone to impulsive decisions, but she though she'd squashed that long ago when she was first promoted to Jounin, and even more so when she was accepted into the ANBU corps. It seemed that that was not the case however as this was most certainly the most hair-brained, bull-headed idea she'd _ever_ come up with.

Well, it was too late to turn back now. She might as well continue with the madness.

"Hokage-sama," Kyomi greeted with a deep bow. "I..." She faltered for a moment. The Godaime raised an eyebrow at this. ANBU, and Kyomi in particular, were not known for being hesitant. Under the Godaime's inquisitive gaze Kyomi straightened her back--and her resolve--and continued.

"I want to-- to take on an apprentice."

Kyomi winced slightly. Had that last part come out in a slight rush? The silver haired kunoichi suddenly wished that she had her mask with her. It would have been at least something to protect her from the Hokage's suddenly deadpanned stare.

"An...apprentice...?" the Godaime Hokage slowly repeated. Kyomi nodded tersely, sensing the Godaime's surprise and not liking it. Now she _really_ wished she had just turned back. Damn her stupid impulsiveness! It was supposed to be gone! _This_ was exactly what had gotten her into so much trouble when she was younger.

Kyomi kept a blank face up while the Godaime began to ponder her request. There were a few minutes of silence in the medium-sized office before the Godaime suddenly looked back up at the ANBU standing before her.

"Is there a particular person that you have in mind?" the blonde Hokage questioned.

"...Yes, Hokage-sama," Kyomi replied. "There is a Genin I have met who has caught my interest. His name is Uzumaki Naruto."

The Godaime immediately chocked when she heard the name, her eyes going wide. "Naruto-kun!" she gasped. "You want to take Naruto-kun as your apprentice?!"

"...Yes..." Kyomi said, blinking in surprise. The Godaime Hokage knew Naruto? That was surprising--and rare. Why would a Hokage know a mere Genin?

The Godaime's mouth continued to flap open and closed for a few seconds, her expression completely shocked. Just as abruptly as her shock had come however, it passed and her eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Why?" the Godaime bit out tightly.

Kyomi blinked again, surprised once more. "Erm, I met Naruto-kun this morning at a ramen stand. We got to talking and he eventually took me to meet his sensei, who in fact turned out to be my aniki**(1)**,Kakashi-kun. Kakashi-kun was unable to train Naruto-kun that day because he was going to be working with Uchiha Sasuke and so he asked me to train Naruto-kun for a while. I did so and...well..." Kyomi fumbled with her words for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Quite honestly, Hokage-sama, he...he reminds me of myself...when I was younger..."

This time it was the Hokage's turn to blink in surprise. She sank back into her chair--she had been leaning forward over her desk before--relaxing slightly. "I...can understand that," she said. "I suppose then that you have no qualms against who he is...what he is..."

"...Huh?" Kyomi said intelligently.

The Godaime stared at her. "You know, about him being a Jinchuuriki**(2)**?" Kyomi continued to stare. The Godaime did as well. "You..." the Godaime Hokage continued slowly. "...You don't know?"

"Erm, I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, but I'm not quite following."

The Godaime continued to stare for a moment, her face blank, causing Kyomi to shift uncomfortably under her stare. Finally the Hokage sighed again.

"You know about the attack on Konoha by the Kyuubi no Kitsune, correct?" she asked.

"...Yes. My Genin team was deployed on the back lines."

The Hokage started for a moment and then relaxed again. "That's right; you were already a Genin at that time, weren't you? Well, anyway, I'm sure that you also know how the Kyuubi no Kitsune was sealed into a newborn by the Yondaime Hokage."

Kyomi nodded in affirmation. "Yes," she said. "As I was already a kunoichi I was included in the law made by the Sandaime Hokage banning everyone from speaking of the sealing." Kyomi paused for a moment. "But what does that have to do with Naru-" Kyomi suddenly froze, calculations of Naruto's age flying through her mind. She gasped, "Wait! Naruto is...!"

The Godaime Hokage watched Kyomi over folded hands, waiting to see her reaction. She had to wonder if Kyomi's view would change on Naruto after this revelation. Would she hate him like the rest of the villagers? Or would she, like her brother, see him for who he really was? The Godaime was also quite surprised that she hadn't known who Naruto was right away. It probably couldn't be helped though; she was out of the village on missions most of the time so she had probably completely forgotten whom the Kyuubi no Kitsune had been sealed in.

"...Well, that's interesting..." Kyomi suddenly said, breaking the Godaime out of her thoughts. Kyomi looked up and met the Godaime's honey brown eyes and a small smirk slid across her face. "And it explains a lot. He also must be pretty emotionally strong, then. It adds to his potential."

The Godaime had to stop a sigh of relief from escaping her. She returned the silver haired ANBU's smirk. "Yes, it does. Did you know that he was able to master Rasengan in a week?"

Kyomi's composed stance fell apart in a second as she openly gaped at the Hokage. "He knows the Yondaime's Rasengan!" The Godaime just continued to smirk. "And he learnt it in a week?! It took the Yondaime Hokage years to master it!"

"Mm-hmm," the Godaime agreed, still grinning. "The brat was able to get Jiraiya to teach him. He also got the toad summoning contract from him."

Kyomi continued to gape. This was certainly a new development. Naruto was a lot more powerful than she had originally thought. And yet Kakashi still wasn't teaching him very much...? Kyomi was going to have to have _words_ with Kakashi when she got home. At least Naruto did have Jiraiya to teach him though...

'_Jiraiya-sama must be the Ero-sennin that Naruto spoke of before,_' Kyomi thought amusedly. '_While a bit rude, I must say that it certainly fits..._'

"...Well," the Godaime began. "I must say that I think that you'd be a great teacher for Naruto-kun, especially with your unbiased view on him. The only problem is with your status as an ANBU. You're on missions most of the time so I'm worried about the amount of time you'll have to actually teach Naruto."

Kyomi hesitated. "I...I'm willing to take fewer missions..." She honestly wasn't sure about whether our not she'd physically be able to stay in the village for longer amounts of time. Kyomi wasn't sure she'd be able to take the memories it might stir up.

'_But then, I can't just keep running away, can I?_' Kyomi suddenly thought. '_It's been years now. If I can't get over what happened then I'm no better than how Kakashi-kun is with Obito's death._'

The Godaime Hokage nodded. "That sounds good. I'll put you on minimum duty as soon as your off time is over." The Godaime smiled up at the younger kunoichi. "Congratulations, Hatake-san, on getting your first apprentice."

* * *

As Kyomi walked down the streets of Konohagakure no Sato she couldn't help but grin. While she still wasn't quite sure why in Hell she'd decided to take Naruto as her apprentice, she was somehow...happy...with the decision. While Kyomi had certainly never been as loud as the blonde, Naruto still did remind her quite a bit of herself when she was younger. If only Naruto was a known prankster, then it'd be even better. Oh the things they could do to Kakashi together...

Kyomi had to stop herself from cackling out loud.

* * *

On a whim, Kyomi decided to go back to where she had last seen Naruto to see if he was still there. She highly doubted that he was though, as it had been nearly two hours since she had left, and he would easily have been out of chakra an hour ago. As she neared the training ground however, Kyomi saw that this was not the case at all.

The blonde Genin was laying spread eagle on the grass, his chest heaving from exertion. Kyomi was honestly surprised that he hadn't already passed out.

"Yo," Kyomi said, abruptly appearing over Naruto. The said shinobi let out an undignified squawk, quickly jumping to his feet. As he slowed his racing heart, Naruto glared at the laughing kunoichi.

"That wasn't funny," Naruto muttered half-heartedly.

Kyomi grinned, "Sure it was!" She paused for a moment, her face going serious. Naruto stared at her, confused at the sudden mood swing. Kyomi then began walking towards the nearby little red bridge, wordlessly jerking her head for Naruto to follow her.

Once the two were half way over the bridge, Kyomi turned and leaned against the railing, staring at the water below. Naruto stood in the middle of the bridge, still completely confused. The two stood in silence for a few minutes--something that made Naruto begin to fidget--before Kyomi finally spoke.

"...Hey, kid," she said, her voice slightly rough. "How would you..." She trailed off, paused for another few seconds, and then finally turned around to face Naruto, her back resting against the bridge's railing. "...Would you like to...become my apprentice?"

Naruto froze up and stared at Kyomi, completely shell-shocked. He stayed that way for several minutes, unmoving, unblinking.

"Erm, kid...?" Kyomi said, suddenly very nervous. What was with his reaction? Was he going to refuse? That seemed to finally snap him out of whatever trance he was in.

"W-why?" Naruto stuttered. "Why do you want _me_ to be your apprentice? You're an ANBU! Why wouldn't you choose Sasuke?"

Kyomi winced slightly, especially when she heard the bitterness that tinged his voice with his last sentence. Quickly however, she put her smirk back up. "Why?" she repeated. "Because, despite the way others always look to the Uchiha, I can see that you've got potential. And a hell of a lot of it too. Any other person--including _Sasuke_--would have passed out from the chakra control exercise you've been doing, especially for the amount of time you've been working it. Despite this little detail however, you're still standing in front of me right now, looking only slightly fatigued. Now tell me, could Sasuke do that, hmm?"

Naruto stared at her for another minute, his mouth hanging open, before he was finally able to gather his wits. "T-thank you," he stuttered. "I..." He bowed down deeply. "I'll gladly accept your offer."

Kyomi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, a bit uncomfortable. "Uh, great!"

Naruto grinned up at the older kunoichi--who was now his official teacher--before suddenly looking down, thinking deeply. "Hey..." he said."Does this mean you'll get to teach me more jutsu?"

"Umm, I guess it does..."

"AWESOME!" Naruto yelled, throwing his hands into the air and bouncing up and down. "You'vegottoteachmetonsandtonsofsupercooljutsuandthenIcankickSasuke'sbuttandbecomeHokageandeveryonewillfinallyacknowledgemeandI'llbethegreatestninjaEVER!"

Kyomi stared at the hyperactive boy--who was currently jumping up and down and running all over the place, rambling and shouting all the while--getting a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.

'_Great,_' Kyomi groaned in her mind. '_What have I gotten myself into now?_'

* * *

Kyomi let out a sigh of relief as she closed the door to the apartment that she shared with her older brother. She leaned against the door for a moment, enjoying the peaceful silence. She never could have guessed that a 14 year old boy could have so much energy--and especially after hours of intense training on his chakra control!

Kyomi still wasn't entirely sure that it had been a good idea to take Naruto on as an apprentice. Sure, even after only one day of knowing the kid she already really liked him--a difficult feat to be sure--but to teach him? ...Well, at least this meant that she could tell him to do basically whatever she wanted. Kyomi grinned evilly at that thought. That was just one other upside to this whole apprentice thing.

"Kyomi-chan!" Kakashi abruptly said, popping in front of the kunoichi from out of nowhere. "You're back! I thought that you'd be home sooner than this." Kakashi grinned at her, his eye curving in amusement. "How did your training session with Naruto go?"

Kyomi immediately froze up. '_Crap!_' she thought. She had completely forgotten about Kakashi being Naruto's sensei. Even though Naruto would still be going on missions with his team and seeing Kakashi everyday, Kyomi was effectively taking over his training, and thus she was basically taking one of Kakashi's students from him. How on earth was she going to explain this to him?

"Um...about that..." Kyomi said cautiously, slowly moving away from the door and around Kakashi. "...There's something that I need to tell you..."

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 5: The Aniki**

_In a slight daze Naruto plopped down on his busted up old couch. It creaked dangerously from beneath him, but he paid it no mind. Someone had offered to be his instructor. They had actually offered. They weren't assigned to him, like Kakashi, and he hadn't had to beg for them to teach, like Ero-sennin. No, this person had come up to him personally and offered._

_Naruto slowly moved so that he was laying down on the couch, still caught up in his thoughts. Already Kyomi was beginning to teach him a jutsu. He couldn't remember if Kakashi had ever taught him one! Granted, Kakashi had taught him the tree-walking exercise and had gotten his Taijutsu to drastically improve--he was at least high Chuunin level, if he did say so himself! And his __**Kage Bunshin** (_Shadow Doppelganger_) jutsu helped a lot with his brawling style--but it still wasn't the same. But now he had someone to really teach him one-on-one!_


	6. Chapter 5: The Aniki

A/N: Only one review for the last chapter? Wow, that's sad, especially considering the number of people who have this on their alert list. (**sighs**) Anyway, as a side comment, the majority of this chapter will be from Naruto's point of view (and I don't mean 1st person by that). You'll noticed that about half this story will end up being focused on him, while the rest will be focused on Kyomi. Kyomi will still be the main character though. Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

--Oh, and yes the lines for this chapter are different. That's because the lines in Doc manager were all screwed up, so I had to put my own in instead.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - "Hige" means whisker in Japanese. Kyomi calls Naruto this because of the whisker scars on his cheeks.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 5  
_The Aniki_

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"Um...about that..." Kyomi said cautiously, slowly moving away from the door and around Kakashi. "...There's something that I need to tell you..."

"Hmm?" Kakashi asked turning around to face her as she had moved behind him. Kyomi didn't face him however and just stood with her back to her older brother. She kept silent for a moment before slowly turning around.

Not meeting Kakashi's eyes, Kyomi finally spoke, "I...I've taken on an apprentice."

"Really?" Kakashi said, thoroughly confused with how Kyomi was acting. "That's the last thing I ever expected you to do. You must have found someone with a hell of a lot of potential then; not many can meet your standards. Who is it?"

Kyomi gulped, "Um...it's...it's..." She paused again, gathering her wits. She still wasn't meeting Kakashi's eyes, especially with how perplexed he was currently looking. Finally Kyomi spoke again, her words coming out in rush, "It'sUzumakiNaruto!"

Kakashi blinked at this and it took his mind a moment to figure out exactly what she had said. When realization dawned on him however, Kakashi's mouth immediately dropped open. He stared at the blue-eyed kunoichi before him--who was nervously fiddling with the hem of her shirt at the moment--for a few seconds before his mouth abruptly snapped closed. And at that moment Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, did something he had never done before: he glared at his younger sister.

"You what?!" he bit out angrily. "You took _Naruto_ on as your apprentice!"

"Erm," Kyomi started, only to be cut off.

"How dare you!" Kakashi shouted--another first, as he wasn't sure if he had ever really shouted at _anyone_ in general--still glaring. "Naruto is _my_ student and has been so for over two years. I'm the one who has taught him since he came out of the Academy! I'm the one who has been training him to become a skilled shinobi! How dare you think that you can just--"

Abruptly something in Kyomi snapped. At first she had been a bit shocked at Kakashi's outburst, even though she had expected it. After hearing his rant however, she just couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"How dare I?" she snarled, meeting Kakashi glare for glare. "Well I wouldn't have to dare had you actually taught Naruto-kun! Sure you worked on his Taijutsu and chakra control, but that's it! Other than that you just tutored Uchiha Sasuke! You never even taught Naruto-kun a _single_ jutsu! I don't understand how you can even call yourself his sensei and still get sleep at night!"

Kakashi stared at his sister slack jawed, his anger completely forgotten. "I..." he began weakly. "I've taught him jutsu. I taught him..." Kakashi trailed off, staring into space. Slowly, a look of horror crossed his face. "Kami," he breathed. "I didn't teach him any jutsu!"

Kyomi rolled her eyes, her arms crossed firmly in front of her. "No," she snapped. "You didn't."

Kakashi hung his head slightly. "Oh Kami, I hadn't even realized that I hadn't..." he said before slowly trailing off. "I...I was just so focused on training Sasuke-kun. He's that last of the Uchiha and I feel that I owe to Obito to train his sharingan. That and I hoped that it would stop him from attempting to run away again..." Kakashi looked up, meeting Kyomi's ice blue eyes with his own charcoal black ones. "I guess I just got so used to not paying as much attention to him from the time when he needed to work on his chakra control before he could learn any jutsu."

Kyomi sighed. "And what about Obito? You said that you're training Sasuke-san because you feel indebted to him, but there's more to it than that, isn't there?"

Kakashi sighed. "I guess so. It's just that Naruto is so much like Obito used to be...It's like looking into the past."

Kyomi nodded slightly, her suspicions having been confirmed. "I thought so," she said. "But I still think that it's no excuse for you to be so lax in his training. Naruto-kun probably has a very small arsenal of jutsu..." She paused. "But I'm going to remedy that," Kyomi said firmly. "Just by looking in his eyes I can see that Naruto-kun has the ability to be as powerful as you and I _combined_. He's got a will like I've never seen before." Kyomi chuckled before a sad look came into her eyes. "But then I suppose that he's had to have a strong will, what with everything he's had to go through. Just by being what he is he's probably had to be alone for most of his life. People in those situations usually become incredibly determined, or just completely snap. I've seen it happen before."

"Yeah," Kakashi chuckled weakly. "I suppose so." He paused for a few seconds before looking back up at Kyomi and letting out a wry grin. "And really, I suppose that there's no one better than you to teach him. Especially if he's already gotten you to like him..." Kakashi's grin dropped as he gave his younger sister a reprimanding look. "But you really should have come and spoken to me first. Naruto-kun still _is_ my student after all."

Kyomi looked down, ashamed. "Erm, sorry about that. It was just kind of a spur of the moment thing; I wasn't really thinking when it happened. Even now I'm still not entirely sure why I did it..."

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm guessing that means that the whole things official now?"

"Yeah, I went and spoke to Hokage-sama about it a while ago. She agreed to it."

Kakashi nodded in reply. The two silver haired siblings stared at each other in silence for a while before abruptly breaking out into laughter. It took several minutes before they could both calm down completely. Kyomi was nearly doubled over, grabbing her sides. Carefully, she wiped a tear away from her eye. She hadn't laughed like that--or at all really--in a very long time.

"I think..." Kakashi said when he could finally breathe properly again. "...That that was just about our first true fight."

Kyomi nodded, a large grin on her face. Sure they had fought when they were younger--they were siblings after all--but they had also both been shinobi, as both of them had graduated from the Academy at an age much younger than most. It was amazing that a simple blonde haired boy could not only create a fight between Kakashi and Kyomi, but also cause them to laugh so hard. He truly was an interesting person.

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In a slight daze Naruto plopped down on his busted up old couch. It creaked dangerously from beneath him, but he paid it no mind. Someone had offered to be his instructor. They had actually offered. They weren't assigned to him, like Kakashi, and he hadn't had to beg for them to teach, like Ero-sennin. No, this person had come up to him personally and _offered_.

Naruto slowly moved so that he was laying down on the couch, still caught up in his thoughts. Already Kyomi was beginning to teach him a jutsu. He couldn't remember if Kakashi had ever taught him one! Granted, Kakashi had taught him the tree-walking exercise and had gotten his Taijutsu to drastically improve--he was at least high Chuunin level, if he did say so himself! And his **Kagebunshin** (_Shadow Doppelganger_) jutsu helped a lot with his brawling style--but it still wasn't the same. But now he had someone to really teach him one-on-one!

And that's where the doubts came in. What if Kyomi wasn't doing this just because she wanted to? What if she had some ulterior motive? What if the Hokage had just forced her to do it because she wanted to help him and Kyomi was the only tutor? Despite what others may believe, Naruto was far from naïve. She couldn't just _want_ to help someone like him--

Naruto cut his depressing thoughts off. He had promised himself long ago, even before he started the Academy, that he wouldn't think like that. Kyomi had offered sincerely to teach him and that was that. She was just going to be one more precious person for him to protect, the rest of his dark suspicions be damned. And if she really wasn't doing this because she just wanted to, well then he'd just have to do what he did best and change her mind.

As thoughts such as these continued to race around his mind, Naruto didn't even notice himself slipping into the warm embrace of sleep.

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The next morning Naruto woke up with a yawn as his alarm went off. He glance around, blinking sleepily, and dazedly noticed that he was lying on his couch. Huh, he must have dozed off last night without even noticing it. Shrugging off his thoughts, Naruto stumbled drowsily toward his bathroom, intent on taking his morning shower.

Not a half an hour later, Naruto was closing the door to his apartment behind him. Putting on a bright smile, he began to walk down the street, carefully ignoring the people around him while not appearing to. It was something he'd learned to do over the years. After all, if they were all going to ignore him then he might as well ignore them too, and letting them know would only make the people around him question if his intelligence level was as low as they had thought. And that just wouldn't do for him; after all, the only reason that he'd been allowed to enter the academy was because people had thought that he'd never be able to graduate. Granted, he _had_ nearly failed, but that was beside the point.

Continuing on his way, Naruto made it to the Ichiraku Ramen stand in just a few minutes. He then quickly slid into the stall and sat at his usual seat.

"Hey Old Man! Give me five miso ramen!" Naruto barked out with his usual exuberance, banging his fist on the counter. Teuchi, the owner of the ramen stand, immediately came out from where he had been in the back of the store, a large smile on his face.

"Ramen for my favorite customer? Of course!" he said. "Ayame!" Said girl, his daughter, immediately appeared before his side. Without saying anything else to the blonde, the two quickly went to work, they're hands nearly blurring as they went through the familiar motions of making their famous (at least to Naruto) ramen. Within just minutes a steaming hot bowl of ramen was set down before Naruto.

Said blonde quickly devoured the bowl, as well as the four others that followed it. Satisfied, he patted his stomach contentedly before pulling out his wallet. As Teuchi took Naruto's money, he eyed the younger boy. He considered asking him about the young woman from yesterday, but then decided against it and simply turned away.

Naruto, oblivious to the older man's thoughts, jumped up out of his seat, waved goodbye to the pair standing behind the counter and left. As he continued down the street, Naruto's smile had a slightly brighter light to it. He always enjoyed eating at Ichiraku's, and it wasn't because of the ramen. Sure, he did love ramen, but certainly wasn't as obsessed with it as most people thought. No, the real reason that he ate at Ichiraku's as often as he could was because of Teuchi and Ayame. They were the first people, besides the Sandaime Hokage, to treat him as a real person. He loved them for that and it always brightened his day to go visit them.

Naruto glanced up from where he was staring at the road as he reached Training Ground #7. From there he navigated through the trees until the familiar clearing and little red bridge came into view. Naruto then put his energy level up to full and began bouncing as he walked, a large grin stretched across his face.

"Sakura-chan!" he crooned as the pink-haired girl came into view. He bounced over to her. "Good morning!"

The girl gave him an annoyed glance--which made Naruto unconsciously twitch--before completely ignoring the blonde and turning back to Sasuke, whom she was standing before, and looking up at admiringly at him. Naruto, used to the treatment, stopped next to his two teammates but neither of them even acknowledged that he was there.

Naruto felt his mouth tighten ever so slightly as the grin became even harder to uphold. He couldn't understand why they still treated him like this, even after several years. Thinking him an idiot was one thing, but they were still teammates. And the whole situation was made even worse by the fact that he had risked his life to drag Sasuke back to Konoha a few years ago. Sakura had thanked him for it, but after that things had just gone back to the way they'd been before with Sakura yelling at him and Sasuke looking down on him, despite the fact that Naruto had actually beaten the red-eyed bastard.

Truth be told, Naruto didn't really like Sakura as much as he pretended, or at all really. He had at first, when he'd first seen her so many years ago back in the academy, but after even just a few weeks of being in the same class as her, Naruto quickly got over his little crush. It had been a way to get attention however, to draw attention to himself as he asked her out and she yelled at him, so he had kept on asking her out.

Naruto was drawn out of his musings as he heard someone land softly on the ground behind him and his teammates. Looking up, Naruto saw Kakashi smiling up at them from behind his mask.

"Yo," Kakashi said in greeting.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto yelled. While Naruto wasn't sure about Sakura, he himself did it more out of habit than any actual anger.

Waving them off, Kakashi continued, "Today we'll be heading down to the mission center. We'll get a quick mission and then will continue with training."

Naruto jumped up into the air with a yell of excitement. "Awesome! We'll get a great mission and," Naruto paused and pointed at Sasuke, "I'll prove that I'm so much better than you Sasuke!"

Sasuke just looked away from him, "Tch, whatever, dobe."

Kakashi smiled amusedly at his students. None of them noticed it, but said smile was a bit more forced than usual. Team 7 had always acted this way and for the most part Kakashi just brushed it off. Now that he really watched them however, he was noticing how large the rift between Naruto and the other two really was. Perhaps studying under Kyomi really would do the blonde good, in more ways than one.

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Naruto stretched his arms up in the air, cracking his back. Currently, he was walking down a gravel path that ran between the village and the training grounds. Team 7 had just finished their D-class mission for the day--weeding some old lady's garden. They had then split up, each heading their separate ways. Naruto himself was on his way toward Training Ground #24, which was where Kyomi had said that she'd meet him.

Before long Naruto arrived at where the training ground was supposed to be. He blinked as he stared across a vast grassy plain that was littered with numerous boulders and rocks of all sizes. Naruto cautiously walked past the high chain link fence that surrounded the training ground. He knew that there were hundreds of training grounds, all of varying landscapes and sizes, but Kakashi had never really taken them outside of their own. He also had heard that some of the training grounds were only accessible to certain ranks. For example, training ground #44, also known as the Forest of Death, was usually only open to Jounin. Continuing on in to the middle of Training Ground #24, Naruto looked around for Kyomi, but could see nothing.

...Maybe, she was perpetually late like Kakashi...Or maybe...Maybe what she had said yesterday was just a joke and Kyomi didn't actually want to take him on as an apprentice. Maybe she just wasn't going to show up...Naruto looked down sadly at the mid-calf high yellow grass before him. After all, why would she really--

Abruptly, a voice cut through the air, making Naruto jump in surprise. "Hey, Hige-kun**(1)**," Naruto quickly whirled around to where the voice had come from, his eyes widening. There, standing on top of a very large boulder not ten feet away, was Kyomi, her usual smirk on her face. The silver-haired kunoichi leapt off the rock face and landed in a crouch just before the stunned blonde.

"W-what?!" Naruto stuttered. "You've been here all along? But I didn't even see you, and you're wearing black!"

Naruto eyed her outfit, confusion sparking in his eyes. The training ground was mostly comprised of shades of brown and gray, so Kyomi, being in all black as she was, should have easily stood out, even with all of the boulders.

"It's called stealth," Kyomi replied, her smirk widening as she went to ruffle Naruto's hair.

Naruto quickly ducked away, but then paused, confusion once again written across his face. "Wait...Hige-kun?"

"Of course!" Kyomi poked his cheeks where his whisker marks were. "I mean, it suits you, doesn't it?" she asked.

Naruto sighed, deigning not to answer. Then, abruptly, he brightened and began bouncing on the soles of his feet. "What're we going to be doing today?"

"Well," Kyomi replied, placing a hand on her hip. "First you're going to show me whether or not you've gotten that chakra exercise down yet, and then we'll start really working on the jutsu." Kyomi then bent down, picked up a small-sized rock, and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it out of reflex.

Naruto blinked down in surprise at the rock for a moment, before quickly holding the rock out before him in the palm of his hand. He concentrated on the rock and, a not a moment later, a thin layer of blue covered the rock's surface, making it appear to glow. Naruto looked up at Kyomi expectantly, holding the chakra in place effortlessly.

"Good job," Kyomi said, sounding impressed in spite of herself. "Well then, Hige-kun,"--Naruto twitched slightly at what was apparently his new nickname, but Kyomi just ignored him--"I guess that I can get you started on the actual jutsu then." Naruto grinned widely in reply, waiting expectantly for his new sensei to continue. "First, I'll show you the jutsu, and then I'll have you memorize the hand seals so that you can get practicing."

Putting her hands out before her, Kyomi flashed through hand seals quicker than Naruto's eyes could follow. With a mummer of, "**Doton:**** Retsudotensho** (_Earth Style: Split Earth Turn around Palm_)," the effects were immediate. Rocks of all shapes and sizes rose up and began smashing into a central point, which Kyomi's eyes were glued to. Naruto could tell from the vein sticking out of the side of her neck that she was controlling each and every one of the boulders. By the time she was done and the dust had settled, several major boulders had been smashed to pieces and craters littered the ground.

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the damage that had been done. "Woah..." he breathed. Kyomi grinned at Naruto's reaction. Now she'd just show him the seals slowly for him to memorize, and then they could continue on with getting him to master the jutsu.

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**Preview of Chapter 6: The Shopkeeper**

_Regardless of all of his misgivings, Naruto followed quickly behind Kyomi as she entered the store noiselessly. The inside of the store turned out to be exactly what the outside suggested. It was dark and cramped, with shelves that seemed to hold nothing of any real value to shinobi or civilians, and certainly nothing that he would ever consider buying himself. Naruto opened his mouth and turned from where he'd been inspecting the shop to question Kyomi, only to find that she was already making her way toward the dusty old counter in the back of the store._

_Naruto immediately hurried after her, twitching slightly as a rat came out of a dusty corner and ran across his path. It disappeared into a hole in the floorboards soon after. '_Looks can be deceiving?_' Naruto couldn't help but think sarcastically. '_I'm seeing the looks part, but not the deceiving part...

_As he approached where Kyomi was standing, Naruto saw that there was someone behind the counter that he hadn't noticed before; the shopkeeper probably. He was a scarred older man, with graying hair, a crooked nose, and a pointed little goatee. Sharp black eyes focused on Naruto as the blonde stopped next to Kyomi. The man's face raked over Naruto for a moment before apparently dismissing him and turning back to Kyomi. The man's face then split into a grin, surprising Naruto._

_"Back already, Hatake-san?" the man said with a rough voice. "It's usually a few months before I see you again, not a few days."_


	7. Chapter 6: The Shopkeeper

A/N: Eh, well, not too much happens in this chapter, and yet at the same time a lot does (**grins**). It's kind of a filler chapter because it mainly details Naruto's training, but it is very important for the development of the story. You'll see what I mean. Anyways, please read, review, and enjoy. Ja ne.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - You can find a picture of what these look like on my profile, under the "Pics" section.

(2) - Ame no Kuni means Land of Rain (Rain Country).

(3) - He's talking about the Cloak of Invisibility jutsu that academy students are taught. It allows a shinobi to to take a cloak or a piece of cloth and blend into an object, making them invisible. It's the same one that Konohamaru uses--badly--when he looks like a square rock with eye holes, cloaks that are incorrectly patterned or the wrong way round, etc.

(4) - These two jutsu are ones that I came up with myself, so the names might be a little off. I'm fairly sure that "muon" does translate literally to "soundless", but for other one I literally just took "miotosu", which means "to fail to notice", and "nioi", which means smell/odor, and put them together. If anyone who knows Japanese can correct this, please pm or email me!

(5) - Ninken are ninja dogs, like Pakkun.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 6  
_The Shopkeeper_

* * *

One week. It had been one week since Naruto had met Kyomi. One week since he had become her apprentice. One week since he'd started his training.

And Naruto was exhausted.

With a groan, Naruto pulled himself out of bed. He ached all over, in places that he hadn't even known _had_ muscles. Kyomi's training was intense, easily up to ANBU level. She expected not perfection, but better than Naruto's best, even if she had to yank it out of him. Naruto had no doubt that any normal person in his position would already be in the hospital from chakra exhaustion and physical exhaustion. After all, if Naruto was barely able to keep up even with his advanced healing rate and boundless amount of energy...Well, that really said something about Kyomi's training regimen.

Naruto stumbled into his shower and turned the cold water on at full blast. He gasped as the icy cold water met his skin, and then sighed as it began to work the knots out of his muscles. It might be different than the relaxing feeling of a hot shower, but it certainly did the trick in the mornings.

During the first few days under Kyomi, Naruto had worked on the doton jutsu. This wasn't as simple as it sounded however, as Kyomi had had him practice it over and over and over, until Naruto had expanded his control and the size and number of rocks that he could use. By the end of the third day, Naruto had just about mastered the jutsu, being able to lift the largest boulders in Training Ground #24 for nearly an hour straight--testing _that_ had been a pain to go through.

After that Kyomi had stated him on physical conditioning. She'd also given him weights to wear at all times on his forearms and calves. They reminded him a bit of Rock Lee's, but they looked more like black metal bracers and were currently a lot lighter**(1)**. That was to be expected though, since Lee was a Taijutsu freak in every meaning of the word and had been wearing weights for years.

The physical conditioning that Naruto had to go through consisted mostly of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, laps, etc., though Kyomi also spent about an hour a day having a hell of time using multiple Kage Bunshin--which Naruto was shocked to find out that she knew--to throw kunai at him. Kyomi claimed that it was to help increase his reaction time and hone his instincts, but Naruto swore that he also heard her mutter something about keeping her own skills in shape. The vicious smirk that she wore during the exercise didn't exactly help to reassure Naruto either.

At the end of everyday, Kyomi and Naruto would finish up with a sparring session or, as Naruto preferred to call it, His-Face's-Quality-Time-with-Mr.-Ground-and-Mrs.-Tree. Naruto swore that if it wasn't for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, he'd probably just look like one big bruise at the end of the day. Naruto was, however, proud to be able to say that he could go head to head with a solo ANBU in a Taijutsu match and hold his own for at least a little while. Granted, Kyomi was holding back quite a bit--he probably be dead if she didn't--but she certainly wasn't coddling him either. He _still_ had bruises to testify to _that_.

Naruto, however, despite the harshness of the training regimen, just couldn't find it within himself to complain. This was the first time that he'd ever had someone who focused their entire attention and time on him. Even Iruka had had a whole class to take care of and the Sandaime, as kind as he'd been, had had an entire village to watch over. Kyomi may have been a slave driver of a sensei, but she was _his_ sensei.

* * *

One week. Kyomi couldn't believe that it'd already been one week since she'd taken Naruto up as her apprentice. And he was already improving. She could see him growing everyday and even Kakashi had once commented to her that he could see little improvements in Naruto when they went on their D-class missions. It wasn't enough yet for the blonde's teammate to notice--if they even bothered to look at all that is--but it was there. And today, well, Kyomi had a surprise for Naruto.

Speak of the devil--or perhaps demon was more appropriate in this case-- at that moment Kyomi heard footsteps approaching. A smirk on her face, Kyomi crouched down lower on the branch she was standing on. She was currently in Training Ground #59-- which was where she had told Naruto they were meeting today--and it had a rainforest terrain, actually not too dissimilar from what one would find in Ame no Kuni**(2)**. Kyomi was switching from training ground to training ground to get Naruto acclimated to fighting in different regions and to learn to use the terrain to his advantage without prior knowledge of, but today this also worked well in her favor because the thick foliage hid her well.

It had become a bit of a game/training exercise for Naruto to have to try to find Kyomi each day before the actual training began. Naruto was getting a lot better at it--and becoming much more observant at the same time--but he had yet to really find Kyomi without her giving him a clue or two. Still, he had only had six different tries so far.

It was then that Naruto came into view, looking warily around him. He was walking slowly, cautiously, looking for any signs of a human's passing. Kyomi couldn't help but snicker slightly. Despite all of his attempts, Naruto still stood out far too easily. Oh well, though, she planned on fixing that little problem today anyway.

After another minute or so of watching Naruto, Kyomi saw him stop at the base of the tree that she was sitting in. He crouched down, examining a barely visible footprint that Kyomi had purposely left. It was almost invisible and most Genin and Chuunin probably wouldn't have noticed it, unless specifically trained in tracking. Kyomi smirked lightly as Naruto looked up into the tree that she was in, searching for some other sign of her. This little exercise was good not only to make Naruto more observant and aware of his surroundings, but also to increase his tracking skills. As time went on, Kyomi would start leaving less and less clues for Naruto and make herself harder and harder to find. This meant that eventually, in a few months or so, Naruto would also have pretty good skills as a tracker.

Finally deciding that it was enough, Kyomi leapt from her hiding spot and appeared behind Naruto. Hearing the slight rustle, the Genin whirled around and came face to face with his grinning sensei.

"Good afternoon, Hige-kun!" the silver haired kunoichi chirped.

Naruto bowed slightly, a smile--though one tinged with frustration at still not being able to find his sensei--on his face. "Hello, Kyomi-sensei."

"Today," Kyomi began, getting straight to the point as she usually did. "We're going to be doing something a bit different before we get started." Naruto blinked in surprise, but Kyomi didn't wait for him to say anything and instead threw her fist up into the air. "We're going shopping!"

Naruto's jaw dropped and he stared at his sensei like she'd grown a second head. "...W-what? Why?!"

Kyomi grinned widely at her apprentice's reaction. "Yes," she said, growing a bit more serious. "For you stealth."

Naruto blinked again. "...Huh?"

Kyomi sighed. "You're wearing orange, Hige-kun. I know that you did it for attention, but you're a shinobi and will probably be a Chuunin soon. Wearing orange will point you out to enemies, no matter how good your stealth skill are, and make you a walking target." Kyomi frowned down at Naruto. "I'm not going to train _anyone_ just to have them killed because of their _clothes_. Remember, Hige-kun, you're a shinobi, not a samurai."

Naruto understood--and even agreed with--what she was saying, but a panicked light still entered his eyes. "But what about the villagers? If they see me change so suddenly, they'll probably wonder what happened! They'll probably jump to conclusions and think that the Kyuubi no Kitsune has something to do with it...!"

Kyomi rested her chin in her hand and stared off into space for a moment, thinking. "I'll make you a deal then," she said after a moment. Naruto raised an eyebrow slightly, wondering what she was talking about. "You can still wear your orange outfit, but you're to change into your new clothes for training with me, and for _any_ C-class and above missions that you go on, especially if they're out of the village."

Naruto thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement. "Alright," he said with a grin. "I promise to do that."

* * *

Kyomi and Naruto walked slowly down a main road in the shopping district. Seeing that someone was with Naruto, the majority of the villagers just turned around and blatantly ignored the two. There were, of course, a couple of people--most of them older--who glared, but neither the sensei nor the apprentice paid them any mind.

Or at least, on the outside they didn't. On the inside, Kyomi was fuming. She had understood that some people didn't like Naruto because of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, but this was insane! Just about everyone on this street acted as though Naruto didn't even exist and those that did looked at him like he was Satan himself! It was absolutely disgusting. And yet, Kyomi couldn't do anything about it. Well, perhaps she could prepare him and make him a good shinobi. As far as she could see, that'd probably be the only thing that would ever change people's views...This put a whole new perspective on what she was doing for Naruto.

"So," Naruto said after a little while, eyeing the people around them from the corners of his eyes. "Exactly...where...are we going to go...'cause...you know..."

"Don't worry," Kyomi said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I know the perfect place to go to; it's where I get most of my equipment from." Naruto nodded, but he still wasn't completely convinced.

Not a minute later, Kyomi steered them down onto a lesser used side street, where only a handful of people were milling about. Then, abruptly, she stopped in front of a small, dark, dusty little store. Naruto, who had continued forward a few steps, turned back around and then gave the store a dubious look.

"Here?" he asked incredulously.

Kyomi flashed him a grin. "Looks can be deceiving, remember?" she said with a wink. Naruto shrugged, but still looked warily at the store; it didn't even have a name displayed outside!

Regardless of all of his misgivings, Naruto followed quickly behind Kyomi as she entered the store noiselessly. The inside of the store turned out to be exactly what the outside suggested. It was dark and cramped, with shelves that seemed to hold nothing of any real value to shinobi _or_ civilians, and certainly nothing that he would ever consider buying himself. Naruto opened his mouth and turned from where he'd been inspecting the shop to question Kyomi, only to find that she was already making her way toward the dusty old counter in the back of the store.

Naruto immediately hurried after her, twitching slightly as a rat came out of a dusty corner and ran across his path. It disappeared into a hole in the floorboards soon after. '_Looks can be deceiving?_' Naruto couldn't help but think sarcastically. '_I'm seeing the looks part, but not the deceiving part..._'

As he approached where Kyomi was standing, Naruto saw that there was someone behind the counter that he hadn't noticed before; the shopkeeper probably. He was a scarred older man, with graying hair, a crooked nose, and a pointed little goatee. Sharp black eyes focused on Naruto as the blonde stopped next to Kyomi. The man's face raked over Naruto for a moment before apparently dismissing him and turning back to Kyomi. The man's face then split into a grin, surprising Naruto.

"Back already, Hatake-san?" the man said with a rough voice. "It's usually a few months before I see you again, not a few days. And I'm sure that it's not because my products were defective..."

Kyomi waved her hand dismissively. "No, of course not," she replied. "The weights are just fine, of course."

At this, Naruto froze. Weights? She meant that his weights came from _this_ place? Naruto glanced around the small shop again. He just couldn't believe that his weights--which were of very good make and quality--came from here. It just didn't add up. Naruto turned his attention back to the shopkeeper and Kyomi just in time to hear the older man let out a cackling laugh.

"So this is your, apprentice, eh?" the shopkeeper said. Then, with agility and speed belying his age, the man nimbly leapt around the counter and stood in front of Naruto, studying him. "Not bad," he muttered appraisingly. "You'll need a little work of course, but I think that you'll turn out to be a fine shinobi with time."

"Hige-kun," Kyomi put in. "This is Kenmaru-san. He used to be a fairly well-known shinobi before he retired and opened up this shop."

"Yes, yes," Kenmaru said with a toothy grin. "I just got too old for all that death business. And after my team died..." Suddenly Kenmaru was on the other side of the room, heading for a door in the back corner. "Well, come on, come on, we can't stand around chatting all day." Kyomi followed the older man and, blinking, Naruto did too.

The door opened up to a hall just as dark and dusty as the rest of the shop. Naruto was wary about entering such an enclosed space, but Kyomi seemed completely relaxed and so he trusted her. The hall was fairly short and after only a few feet they passed through another door.

The room on the other side of this door was the exact opposite of the rest of the store. It was clean and well lit, filled with racks and shelves of quality, items, clothing, explosive notes, etc. Off to the side, Naruto saw a collection of different sized weights that appeared to be of the same make as the ones that he himself was currently wearing. Multiple cases against the walls held weapons of all sorts, including many that Naruto had never seen before. For example, how the heck was a spiked ball attached to a chain a weapon? Kenmaru and Kyomi headed over to the clothing section first, with a wide-eyed Naruto trailing along behind.

Stopping in front of a rack, Kenmaru clasped his hands in front of him and spoke. "So," he said to Kyomi. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Well," Kyomi replied. "Dark colors for stealth. Preferably the formfitting material, to remove the hazards of loose clothing catching on things...But also lots of pouches and pockets for storage."

As she finished, Kenmaru raised an eyebrow, "So basically ANBU issue stuff?" Kyomi shrugged in reply so Kenmaru just turned to the racks of clothing and began randomly--at least to Naruto--pulling things out, murmuring to himself all the while. Once he was done, he shoved a pile of clothing into Naruto's arms and pushed the boy toward what appeared to be a small dressing room in the corner of the room, telling the blonde to try everything on. Naruto couldn't help but sigh.

* * *

A half an hour later found Naruto with a new outfit. Staring at himself in a mirror at the back of the room while Kyomi and Kenmaru talked in the background, the blonde was shocked at how different he appeared. He was now wearing a long-sleeved, high-necked black shirt that clung to his body like a second skin. Despite its apparent tightness however, when Naruto twisted and stretched it wasn't constricting at all; it felt almost as though he wasn't wearing it at all. Naruto was also now wearing a pair of black pants similar to Kyomi's. They were, however, tucked into a pair of soft-soled, knee-high black combat boots. Naruto would have expected the boots to make a lot more noise than the normal shinobi sandals, but, surprisingly, they made no noise as he walked. The final touch to the outfit was the pair of black fingerless gloves that adorned his hands. He was, of course, also wearing his weights over the outfit, though they just appeared to be metal bracers over his forearms and the legs ones were hidden beneath his boots, and there was a belt with multiple pouches attached around his waist.

"You like the material?" a voice behind Naruto suddenly rasped, causing said blonde to whirl around. Kenmaru just grinned at him and then turned his attention back to the clothing that Naruto was wearing. "There are small amounts of mesh wire woven into the material. This making the clothing more durable, much more difficult to be torn--be it from battle or wear--, and just generally last a lot longer." Naruto stared down at the material covering his upper torso, legs, and hands in surprise. There was metal in it?! "Also," Kenmaru continued. "This makes the material waterproof, so soggy clothing will never be a problem." Kenmaru cackled then and before wandering back to where Kyomi was standing, looking at some items on the shelves. Naruto couldn't help but wonder just how many marbles the man had left.

"Is there anything else you'd like to get?" Kenmaru asked Kyomi.

The silver haired kunoichi tapped her lower lip in thought. "Hmm, how about a full set of kunai, shuriken, and explosive notes?"

The old shopkeeper nodded and then flitted around the room, picking up a couple of boxes. He dumped them into Naruto's arms and then turned to face Kyomi once more.

"Shall I just add it all to your tab?"

Kyomi nodded, but Naruto immediately protested, speaking up for the first time since he'd entered the store. "Kyomi-sensei!" he said. "You can't...I mean, I won't...Yo-you just can't pay for all of this for me!"

Kyomi, however, just waved him off, chuckling slightly. "Of course I can. You're my student after all." Naruto spluttered for another minute, but neither Kyomi nor Kenmaru paid him any mind.

"Would you like to have the, ah, _other_ items delivered to you house?"

"Yes," Kyomi nodded and then she began walking towards the door. "Thank you for your help Kenmaru-san."

The older man just cackled. "Good day Hatake-san, Uzumaki-san." Naruto found himself walking a bit quicker after Kyomi, the content of the boxes in his arms clacking, only barely muted by his old clothes which had been stuffed haphazardly inside them.

As soon as Naruto and Kyomi had stepped out of the store and back onto the street, Naruto shot Kyomi a curious look. "Other items?"

Kyomi shrugged and then gave a mysterious smile. "Just a couple of other things that I ordered." Not allowing Naruto to question further, Kyomi continued on, "Go and deliver those boxes to your apartment and then meet me back at Training Ground #59. Oh, and it'll be a new exercise for you to use all of your stealth to get to and from training, since you don't want people to recognize you."

"Will everything I do now be some sort of training?" Naruto grumbled.

Kyomi's ringing laughter was his reply.

* * *

A few hours later found a panting Naruto with sweat running down his face standing before a grinning Kyomi. They had just finished up with their daily session of Throw-Sharp-Things-at-the-Blonde and Naruto was amazed at how well the material of his new clothes had stood up; he'd been hit multiple times--he was getting better at avoiding the kunai, but still wasn't there quite yet--but didn't had a scratch on him.

"Well," Kyomi said while Naruto caught his breath--the damned ANBU hadn't even broken a sweat!--"Next we're going to start working on a new jutsu." Naruto immediately perked up at this news and focused all of his attention on Kyomi. He didn't say anything--he'd learned a while ago not to interrupt when she was speaking; he winced at the very memory--but instead stood quietly. "It's a stealth jutsu--because your stealth is what we're going to be working on next--called **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_)."

For a moment, Naruto wasn't sure if he'd heard right. "Umm...Kyomi-sensei..." he began tentatively."Isn't that the E-class jutsu that we're taught in the academy...?"**(3)**

Kyomi smirked. "No, but that jutsu is a very basic version of it. The version that you'll be learning is a B-class jutsu. It does basically the same things as the E-class version, only you're using your chakra to basically bend the light around yourself to blend in with your surrounding. It makes you "invisible", though its best used in low-light situations. If you're in an area with a lot of light your form will shimmer slightly, giving you away. One other good thing about this jutsu though is that it is a Ninjutsu, not a Genjutsu, so bloodlines like the Byakuugan or Sharingan cannot see through it. It does not, however, mask your sound or scent."

Naruto looked at her wide eyed. That meant that you could use it while moving? That would be incredibly useful! Especially if you were using it at night there was no end to the uses for it...Immediately different pranks began running through his mind. And with this jutsu no one would be able to catch him!

As if sensing his thoughts, Kyomi frowned. "Just remember that this is a B-class jutsu. It takes a lot of effort and chakra control to maintain. It'll probably be a while before you're able to hold it for more than a few seconds." Naruto sighed at that, but Kyomi continued as if she hadn't heard him. "In tandem with this jutsu, I'll also begin teaching you **Muon no Jutsu** (_Soundless Technique_) and **Miotosu Nioi no Jutsu** (_Fail to Notice Smell Technique_)**(4)**. These are both B-class stealth jutsu. Muon no Jutsu creates a void of sound around you so that you become, just as the name says, soundless. Miotosu Nioi no Jutsu does basically the same thing, only with your scent. These three jutsu together make for the perfect stealth. Of course, as is withKakuremino no Jutsu, it takes a lot of effort and chakra control to maintain.

"To start off with," Kyomi continued, "I'll have you memorize the handseals for Kakuremino no Jutsu. Then for today you'll work on getting the jutsu down pat before we begin our daily spar. From tomorrow on you'll practice mastering the jutsu by attempting to hide from me for as long as possible." Kyomi grinned. "Think of it as an advanced game of hide-and-go-seek. Once I believe that you're proficient with the jutsu I'll teach you Muon no Jutsu and Miotosu Nioi no Jutsu. At that point I'll summon some of my Ninken**(5)** for you to try to hide from."

Naruto nodded and then blinked. "Wait, you have Ninken? Like Kakashi?"

Kyomi smirked. "Yes," she answered. "The summoning contract is an heirloom of the Hatake Clan."

"So then you can summon Pakkun and stuff?"

Kyomi chuckled slightly. "I could, but I don't. Pakkun is Kakashi-nii-kun's dog, and a part of the pack that he trained. I have my own pack of Ninken which I trained from when they were young."

Naruto's mouth made an "O" in understanding. "'Kay then, can I start learning the jutsu?"

"Alright," Kyomi said, placing her hands before her. "Let's get to it!"

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 7: The Team**

_Naruto sighed again. Yep, he'd figured when he saw the scroll that Kyomi had had to go on a mission again. This had happened two times before and, fortunately, both times she hadn't been gone for very long at all. Naruto did, however, grin when he read the part about his "final exam"._

_This was awesome! Not only would he get to start on a new jutsu if he passed--and get something else too, apparently--but the exam itself was something that he loved to do anyway! Naruto's grin took on a slightly vicious quality that was surprisingly similar to Kyomi's own. Because of their extra sharp senses and their dogs themselves, Naruto had never been able to prank that Inuzuka clan._

_This would be fun._


	8. Chapter 7: The Team

A/N: This chapter is mainly just more of Naruto's training, though with some twists thrown in (**grins**) It'll be with the next chapter that the main plot of the story will start. You'll see (**cackles**) Anyways, please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years

Chapter 7  
_The Team_

* * *

Nervously, Naruto crouched down inside of a bush. It had been two weeks since he had received his new outfit and begun his stealth training, and he was beginning to curse whoever decided that shinobi would be masters of stealth. Learning the jutsu had been no problem, but it was what came after that that Naruto hated. Hearing a snuffling only few feet away, the blonde shrunk back even further, sweat running down the side of his face as he focused on keeping the three stealth jutsu that he had been taught up around him.

Naruto had done surprisingly well with **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_), so after only about half a week Kyomi had begun to teach him** Muon no Jutsu** (_Soundless Technique_) and **Miotosu Nioi no Jutsu** (_Fail to Notice Smell Technique_). It was also then that Kyomi had begun to summon her Ninken. Hiding from summoned dogs that had been trained from a very young age to track shinobi was not something that Naruto would wish on anyone. It was probably one of the most taxing training that he'd ever been through, worse even than Kyomi's physical conditioning--which he _still_ had to do everyday--, which was probably why he still hadn't been able to completely master the three jutsu, even after two weeks.

The jutsu themselves weren't that difficult to learn--at least not for him considering his massive chakra reserves and relatively excellent chakra control--but keeping them up was difficult. Even he couldn't keep them up for more than five-ten minutes at a time. Because of that Naruto had to learn when to keep up the jutsu, when to drop the jutsu, and which ones to put up at which times. For example, most of the time he had to keep up the scent jutsu, but the invisibly jutsu he could drop if he was in thick foliage or not anywhere near the Ninken. He could also drop the sound jutsu if he was standing still or, again, no where near the dogs. He currently had all three of the jutsu because one of the Ninken was not three feet from his hiding place.

Speaking of said summon, Naruto heard the rustling of foliage slowly approaching him. He tensed, knowing that the dog was going to find him soon as it usually did. The Ninken tracked his scent and trail through the woods, following just signs of his passing where his scent disappeared, so eventually they always found him. With the time however, Naruto was learning how to show almost no signs of his passing. This also meant that he was getting better at tracking other things himself. He had come pretty close to finding Kyomi the other day with her leaving almost no signs for him to follow!

Abruptly the Ninken, who couldn't have been more than a foot from the bush Naruto was in, turned and began moving in another direction. Naruto waited several minutes after the dog's departure, staining for any sounds, before letting out a shaky breath and dropping all three of his jutsu. He raised a shaky hand and wiped his forehead. He couldn't believe that he had actually managed to outwit one of Kyomi's Ninken. It was the first time that he had ever managed to do so.

Slowly, and carefully, Naruto stood up. He glanced around warily before slowly stepping out of the bush he was in. Immediately, a large spotted brown and gray dog leapt in front of him, growling. Naruto groaned and hung his head. Ah, man! And he had lasted so long too...

Sighing and running a hand down his face, Naruto glared at the Ninken. "Alright, alright, take me back to Kyomi-sensei." Naruto could swear that the dog smirked at him before turning around and leaping into the foliage. Still, glaring, Naruto followed.

A few minutes later Naruto arrived back to a small clearing in the center of Training Ground #38, the forested training ground that he and Kyomi were currently using, and in said clearing stood Kyomi. The Ninken that had found Naruto was no where in sight; Kyomi had probably already dismissed her pack.

As Naruto approached her, Kyomi smirked. "Good job, Hige-kun," she congratulated him. "You lasted longer today that you ever have before." Naruto blinked in surprise. _Kyomi_ was _praising_ him? That was something that she almost never did, to the point that Naruto didn't expect it at all, even when he did fairly well. Naruto immediately flushed as the words sunk in, and then scratched the back of his head sheepishly, at a loss for words. The two then spoke for a couple of minutes about Naruto's performance before their conversation paused again. As this point Naruto spoke up, deciding to voice a question that had been on his mind for a while.

"Hey, Kyomi-sensei," he began. "Why are you focusing so much on my stealth?"

"Well," Kyomi grinned. "It's because of your style. The way you fight is basically 'use brute force to tear your opponents apart'. Now if you increase you stealth skills to match your offensive skills, then the two styles combine and you become one hell of a shinobi." Kyomi grinned again. "And since most shinobi only focus on being just offensive or just defensive, this will help you out a lot."

Naruto nodded, "Okay, but do you really have to use your Ninken _everyday_?" The blonde then hung his head.

A decidedly satisfied smirk came onto Kyomi's face, but before she could even open her mouth to reply a whooshing noise was heard and a black cloaked ANBU landed in the clearing, right next to Kyomi. The ANBU bowed to the kunoichi, holding out a scroll before him.

"Ookami-sama," the ANBU greeted.

Nodding in reply, Kyomi snatched up the scroll and opened it. The black cloaked ANBU then disappeared, his task complete. Kyomi quickly scanned through the contents of the scroll, before nodding to herself.

"Sorry, Hige-kun," she said as she rolled the scroll back up. "But it looks like we won't be able to spar today; the Hokage has requested my presence. You can go ahead and head home now." Naruto nodded and then, without waiting for a further reply, Kyomi disappeared with a flash of handseals and a quiet poof of smoke.

Naruto wasn't quite sure whether to feel relieved or disappointed. Sure he was going to miss out on being beaten into the ground, but then he was also going to miss out on a chance to train and get stronger...Shrugging it off, Naruto began to make his way out of the training ground; after all, there was nothing that he could do about it now.

Just a few minutes later, Naruto entered the village. He immediately took to the rooftops, carefully maneuvering away from any other people. Over the last few weeks he had gotten pretty good at this and he was almost positive that no one had recognized him yet, except perhaps for the ANBU.

Abruptly sensing another person in the corner of his peripheral vision, Naruto leapt down from the roof he was on and onto a lower balcony. Still continuing forward, Naruto sharply turned a corner and waited beneath an overhanging ledge. He heard the shinobi pass by and then waited about thirty more seconds until the sounds of their passing had completely disappeared. Only then did Naruto come out, leap back onto the rooftops, and continue on his way.

All the way home, Naruto never used any of his stealth jutsu. He never did; it was kind of like a personal challenge to himself to get to and from training unrecognized using nothing but his own skill. And, fortunately, he had yet really to need to use the jutsu either. Naruto swelled with pride at this thought; a month ago he never would have been able to do this, especially with his old orange outfit. The blonde was only just beginning to realize how much of a damper on his skills the jumpsuit had been, and yet he still had to wear it everyday when visiting with his Genin cell.

Lost in thought, it was only a couple of minutes later that Naruto arrived at his apartment building. Silently, he made his way into the building and toward his apartment. Reaching the door, Naruto dug his key out of one of his pockets, unlocked the door, and then sealed it shut again behind himself. Using his chakra, Naruto activated some trap that he had set up around the entrances to his home; Kyomi had gone over traps one day a little while ago when they'd had some extra time, and Naruto had put the knowledge to good use. Most of the traps were prank style--as he didn't want to get into trouble for hurting anyone--but they were also most than enough to ward off anyone who tired to break in from doing it a second time.

Throwing his keys haphazardly on his little table, Naruto began to make his way toward his small kitchen setup to make some dinner, but then froze when he saw what his keys had landed next to: a scroll that certainly hadn't been their that morning when he'd left. Sighing as he guessed what it was, the blonde slowly made his way back to the table, and then picked up the scroll and opened it. It read:

_Hige-kun,_

_Sorry, but Tsunade-sama has called me out for another mission. It's only A-class, so I should be back in just a couple of days. Tell Kakashi-nii-kun that I'm on a mission when you see him tomorrow, will ya? I had to leave quickly and wasn't able to let him know. Oh, and don't forget to keep up with your physical condition while I'm gone or I will pound your ass into the ground when I get back._

_On another note, I have decided that you're doing very well with your stealth training, so you're going to be doing a kind of a "final exam" while I'm gone. If you succeed not only will I start you on learning a new jutsu, but I'll also have a special surprise for you too._

_Here's what you'll have to do:_

_In the middle of the night you'll have to enter the Inuzuka compound undetected and leave a large--and it better be a damn good one--prank for them before leaving. No one must sense that anyone is there while you are doing this and they cannot figure out that it was you who pulled the prank. This means that you can't do any type of prank that you've done before. Oh, and don't tell anyone--not even Kakashi-kun--about this; the Godaime will have my head if she finds out that I had you do a prank as a part of your training._

_Well, good luck, be creative, and have fun!_

_--Kyomi_

Naruto sighed again. Yep, he'd figured when he saw the scroll that Kyomi had had to go on a mission again. This had happened two times before and, fortunately, both times she hadn't been gone for very long at all. Naruto did, however, grin when he read the part about his "final exam".

This was awesome! Not only would he get to start on a new jutsu if he passed--and get something else too, apparently--but the exam itself was something that he loved to do anyway! Naruto's grin took on a slightly vicious quality that was surprisingly similar to Kyomi's own. Because of their extra sharp senses and their dogs themselves, Naruto had never been able to prank that Inuzuka clan.

This would be _fun_.

* * *

The next morning Naruto woke up and began to get ready with his mind racing He'd stayed up late last night working on a plan for the upcoming prank and now he was just mentally straightening out the details. He had decided to do the prank tonight. He would go to his team's meeting like he usually did, then, once they parted ways, he'd do his usual physical training before heading out to get the supplies. Then, that night, he'd put his plan into action.

Nearly and hour later, after finishing getting ready and going out to eat ramen, Naruto arrived at Training Ground #7 with what appeared to be his usual grin on his face. However, if either of his teammates--who were already there--had looked close they would have noticed the slightly gleeful tint to it. As it was, however neither of them paid any mind to their blonde teammate.

Naruto stood quietly on the little red bridge, staring down at the water, like he did every morning. At first his two teammates had been slightly unnerved when Naruto had begun acting quiet in the mornings--which, unknown to them, had been mainly because he was usually so exhausted--but before long they just accepted it as normal and didn't even question him about it.

Just then Kakashi arrived. "Morning," he said lazily. Naruto and Sakura greeted him with their normal yell and then Kakashi continued, "We'll be heading over to the mission center again today." Without waiting for a response the silver haired shinobi turned and began walking away and the three Genin quickly followed after him.

While they were walking down the street toward the Hokage Tower, Naruto slowly dropped back from where he'd been by Sasuke and Sakura to walk next to Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei," he murmured quietly. Kakashi's eyes slid around to look at the blonde from the corners of his eyes, though he still held his little orange book up in front of his face. Taking this as a sign that he was listening, Naruto continued. "Kyomi-sensei wanted me to let you know that she was sent on a mission and won't be back for a few days."

Kakashi nodded, smiling slightly. He'd probably never tell anyone, but it still felt weird to hear Naruto call Kyomi his sensei. On top of that, Kyomi had never really been the "teaching" type, so that only made it all the stranger. Despite that however, Naruto appeared to be flourishing underneath Kyomi's guidance. This made Kakashi wonder how Kyomi would do as a Jounin sensei, but then he immediately discarded the idea; it took a certain type of person to even survive her training. Kakashi shivered slightly. He knew first hand what her Ninken--whom she'd personally trained--could do, so in a way, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know exactly how Naruto was going to turn out after an extended period of time under her care.

"How," Kakashi began before hesitating. "How is your training going?" Naruto absolutely beamed up at him. The blonde Genin opened his mouth to reply when Sakura suddenly turned around, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

"Come _on_, you slow pokes!" she exclaimed. "We're already here!"

Sure enough, when the two shinobi looked up they saw the Hokage Tower stretching up above them. Immediately Naruto put a grin on his face. "Well, come on," he said, almost mimicking Sakura as he bounded past his teammates. "Let's go get our mission!"

As Naruto passed the two black cloaked ANBU standing guard at the front door, said ANBU inclined their heads almost imperceptibly in recognition towards him. Naruto nodded back ever so slightly, as to not alert his teammates. He still didn't understand, however, exactly why they always did that. He knew that being accepted as an apprentice to an ANBU made him special since ANBU almost never did that--though exactly _why_ Kyomi had chosen him he _still_ couldn't understand--but still...Naruto shrugged it off however, like he usually did. Maybe he'd remember to ask Kyomi about it sometime.

As Team 7 entered the Mission Center, Naruto immediately waved to Iruka, who was sitting behind one of the desks. The young Academy teacher smiled and waved back before returning to his conversation with the Chuunin next to him. Meanwhile, Kakashi approached Tsunade, who was sitting at another desk not too far away.

"Team 7 is here to receive a mission," the lazy Jounin stated, slouching as he stood. Tsunade grunted, randomly chose a scroll from the D-class mission pile, and tossed it to Kakashi, not even looking up from the paperwork that she was doing while handing out missions. She did, however, glance up momentarily to flash a grin at Naruto. Said blonde waved back at her before turning around and bouncing after Kakashi--who had already begun to leave--with a stoic Sasuke and an ever fawning Sakura trialing along behind.

* * *

Several hours later Naruto wiped his forehead as he took a drink from his water bottle, having just finished up with his physical training for the day. He leaned against a nearby tree to catch his breath for a minute. Once he was feeling a bit more refreshed, Naruto packed away his water and began to make his way out of the training ground.

Like usual, Naruto was in Training Ground #38. Kyomi liked to use this one--or ones like it-- for his stealth training because, throughout the forested area, the foliage wasn't very thick, meaning that he had to work harder to stay hidden. Another good thing about being Kyomi's apprentice, Naruto thought, was that he had access to almost all of the training grounds; he was fairly sure that only the ANBU ones were off-limits for him. Hell, he could probably even go into the Forest of Death if he wanted!

As he began to approach the village, Naruto paused and then began to run through a couple of handseals; if he was going to be buying supplies for a prank that no one was supposed to know that he did, then no one could know that it was _him_ who bought said supplies. And so, with a quiet murmur of "**Henge no jutsu** (_Transformation Technique_)", a brown haired, black eyed young man stood in place of Naruto. The former blonde was also now wearing the nondescript clothing of a villager and his hitai-ate was no where to be seen. Grinning, Naruto continued on into the village.

Naruto headed straight for a shop that he knew carried the supplies that he was looking for. Entering inside he picked up a basket and then began getting the supplies, along with a few groceries. A couple of minutes later Naruto turned the corner of an isle sharply, and bumped into someone. It was only his quick reflexes--perhaps dodging kunai and shuriken, which had recently been added to the mix, for an hour every day _did_ help after all--in grabbing the other person's arm to steady them both that saved them both from sprawling all over the floor. Looking down at the person as he let go of their arm, Naruto was surprised to see that it was Tenten whom he had run into.

Tenten smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she said.

Suddenly Rock Lee appeared next to Tenten. "Yosh!" he said exuberantly. "You have quick reflexes of youth!"

Tenten immediately flushed. "Erm, sorry about him," she apologized, quickly leading Lee away by his elbow before Naruto could even open his mouth to say anything to either of them.

Naruto stood blinking in surprise at their sudden departure for a moment, before remembering that he was under a henge and so they hadn't recognized him. He shook his head in amusement and then turned to continued on, when he suddenly caught the words of Tenten's and Lee's conversation picking up again.

"Anyway, Lee," Tenten was saying. "I'm sure that Kyomi-san..."

Naruto's head whipped around so fast to where the two Genin had gone that he heard a crack. Unfortunately, the two had already turned another corner and their voices were lost in the din of the store. Naruto hesitated for a moment, wanting to go after then and find out why they were talking about Kyomi--and how they even knew her in the first place--but then he decided against it. After all, he thought as he began to walk in the opposite direction, he had his "final" to worry about.

* * *

It was one o'clock in the morning when Naruto left his house. He was wearing his black outfit and had a medium-sized drawstring bad slung over his shoulder. He carefully locked his apartment door behind himself, and then took to the rooftops, being twice as careful as he usually was about being discovered. He couldn't screw up, not tonight.

Naruto made a beeline towards the Inuzuka compound and arrived at his destination in just about ten minutes. Cautiously he crouched down on the edge of a roof across from the outer wall surrounding the dog clan's compound. He stayed like that, frozen in place, for five minutes, when he was sure that he knew how the guard system worked. Naruto then flashed through three different strings of handseals and turned invisible, soundless, and odorless. He then quickly moved into the compound, easily sliding past the guards.

Once inside, Naruto let out a sigh of relief. He knew, however, that he had to work quickly in order to get back out without being detected. The blonde pulled the bag that was slung over his shoulder onto the ground, drew it open, and then pulled out a few choice items. Turning to face the main wall of the Inuzuka building, Naruto grinned, and then got to work.

* * *

The next morning Naruto woke up tired. Granted he wasn't as exhausted as he usually was because he hadn't done any personal training with Kyomi, but that was beside the point. Groggily, Naruto yawned and began to go through his usual morning activates. He got past his shower and up to putting on his orange jumpsuit before the memories of last night's activates fully caught up with him. At that point, Naruto grinned.

He had managed to get through setting up the prank with only minimal problems. At one point he had almost been caught by the dogs, their natural instincts alerting them to someone's presence even with the three jutsu on Naruto. Fortunately, standing frozen in place for nearly five minutes straight had managed to convince them that no one was there. For the first time, Naruto was actually glad of the intense stealth training that Kyomi had put him through by having him stalked by Ninken; he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to stand so still for so long before the said training.

For the most part, after that the prank had gone smoothly. Within fifteen minutes he was out of the compound, no one the wiser that he had even been there it the first place. It was also during the "exam" however that it really started to dawn on Naruto exactly what his stealth training was doing for him. After all that Kyomi had put him through, he'd now be able to easily complete almost any assassination mission or mission to steal something. He'd effortlessly be able to enter into just about any area, get to his target, and slip back out. He was sure that his stealth skills were easily up to Jounin level.

'_And yet,_' he thought with a grumble. '_It still can't find Kyomi when she hides from me._' Naruto sighed. Oh well, that just meant that he needed to work on his tracking skills some more. He wondered if Kyomi would give him a "final exam" for tracking too...

Shrugging off his thoughts, Naruto concentrated on finishing getting ready. Once he was indeed ready to leave his apartment, the blonde picked up his key from its place on his table, tucked it into the bottom of one of his pouches, and slipped outside. As he walked down the road, heading toward the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Naruto paid close attention to the conversations around him, hoping to hear something about how his prank had gone off.

For the first couple of minutes, he didn't hear anything that he was looking for, but then he caught a few spurts from different villagers.

"...Did you hear about what happened? Supposedly..."

"...and when they woke up it was already like that! ...You should have heard how..."

"...the walls were covered in paintings of _cats_! Can you imagine that? The walls of the _dog_ clan were..."

"...all of the dogs' fur was dyed _hot_ pink. They know that it wasn't done via a jutsu, but have no idea how someone could have done that without waking the dogs. Still, _I_ think..."

"...it's absolutely unbelievable. To think that someone with enough skill to get in and out of a clan's compound undetected..."

"..._mustaches_ drawn on all of the dogs! And some had eyebrows done too! They think that..."

"...somehow there was _itching_ _powder_ put in the entire water supply of the compound. That means that in the morning, all the people who used water--which is just about everyone..."

"...flyers posted on the main doors warning of a flee epidemic..."

"..._catnip_ in the clan leaders bed..."

"...and then they found out that the dye wouldn't come out..."

"...Oh, you can bet that it'll be the talk of the village! All of the other clans are tightening their security so that..."

"...and of course when they went to try to wash the dye out of the dogs fur there was still itching powder in the water so..."

"...there are actually 'Beware of Dog' signs all over..."

Naruto had to repress a vicious grin from taking over his face and forces himself to continue walking on as though he wasn't hearing anything. It appeared as though his prank had worked. And their reactions were almost exactly as he had predicted. The only thing he needed to find out now was whether or not anyone suspected him of pulling this prank.

Naruto continued on for several minutes without hearing anything new, before he finally caught a conversation between two Chuunin standing off to the side.

"...so do they know who did it then? I mean surely there must be _some_ clue. They're the dog clan for Kami's sake!" exclaimed the first Chuunin.

The second one shook his head. "No," he replied. "At first they thought that it could be the Kyuubi brat," the Chuunin's eyes slid over to Naruto then, not even realizing that the blonde himself was currently listening to them, "But he would never be able to pull something like this without being discovered. Hell, he wouldn't be able to make it within five feet of the compound without everyone noticing!" Both of the Chuunin sneered in cruel amusement.

"Well," the first Chuunin continued. "If that's ruled out, then who could it be? It's obviously someone who's very skilled, probably at least Jounin rank considering that they outwitted the whole Inuzuka clan without being noticed, but then who of that rank would pull something like this?"

At this point Naruto tuned the two Chuunin out. Good, this meant that no one suspected him. Naruto's grin widened slightly as he placed his hands behind his head. He was sure that he'd passed the exam and, past that, Kyomi was sure get a kick out of this whole thing.

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 8: The Katana**

_"So someone caught wind that this attempt would be made, eh?" she murmured. "I figured that something like this would happen." Despite the fact that she was facing an ANBU, the kunoichi didn't seemed to be at all concerned. She seemed completely at ease in fact! The kunoichi continued to look at Kyomi and seemed to sense the unasked question hanging in the air. "Oh, don't worry," the shadow kunoichi said with a smirk in her voice. "Your jutsu are working just fine. I just have other ways of sensing you." The kunoichi reached behind her back and pulled out a gleaming scythe with a black metal handle. "In fact, it's really too bad that I was the one you had to run into." The kunoichi then lowered into a fighting stance. "I hope you said goodbye to your family before you left."_

_Kyomi's reaction was immediate. She dropped the scent jutsu, not needing it, but kept the other two up. At the same time she pulled her katana out of it's sheathe and leapt and the other kunoichi, wanting to incapacitate her before things went any further. Said kunoichi put her scythe up before her, blocking Kyomi's strike with the metal handle of her weapon. Kyomi quickly spun away and struck again, only to be blocked again. As Kyomi stepped back, the shadow kunoichi took the time to swing her scythe forward. Had Kyomi not flipped backward at the last moment the strike would have cleanly lopped her head off her shoulders._


	9. Chapter 8: The Katana

A/N: And now the main part of the story begins! This is the chapter that I've really been waiting to put up, because it'll be a catalyst for much that it to come. Oh, and also, do you remember Kenmaru, the shopkeeper from chapter six? If you don't then go back and reread that part, because Kenmaru is going to be a pretty important character in this story. He won't show up all that often, but he'll be mentioned and referred to all the time, including this chapter. Well, _please_ let me know what you think! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - If any of you know Ray from Beyblade, her hair is kind of like that. If you don't know who I'm talking about, Google his picture and look at his hair to get an idea.

(2) - If you're having trouble visualizing this, it's fairly similar to Gaara's sand coffin attack, only with shadows.

(3) - There's a picture of this axe up in my profile--under the pics section--if you want to see it.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

* * *

Even After All These Years

Chapter 8  
_The Katana_

* * *

While Naruto was having the time of his life pulling a prank on the Inuzuka clan, Kyomi was preoccupied with more serious matters, namely the mission that she had been sent on. She was currently traveling through Taki no Kuni, the Land of Waterfall, and was very close to where her mission was located. It had taken a day to get to where she was, and the mission itself would probably last one to two days, so Kyomi estimated that the entire mission itself would probably take about four days. She winced slightly as she thought about Naruto missing out on that much training, but then figured that the "final exam" would probably keep him busy for at least a little while.

Even as these thoughts passed through her mind, Kyomi found that she was surprised at herself. For the past seven or eight years she had been out of the village constantly, returning only to rest for a day or so before taking up another mission. She hated coming back to Konohagakure no Sato because of the memories that it brought, and more than once had seriously considered retiring and moving far away.

Despite this however, since taking Naruto on as her apprentice Kyomi had found herself almost always in the village. And even more so, she found herself not like it when she was away! It was a complete 180 in such a--relatively--short amount of time. Granted, it did still hurt sometimes to be back in the village, but she threw herself into Naruto's training and that managed to keep most of her feeling at bay. After all, if she only concentrated on someone else then she'd have no time for her own feelings, right?

Shrugging off all of her contemplation, Kyomi reminded herself that she was on a mission, and that that needed all of her attention. The mission itself was actually fairly straight forward. There was a former merchant of Konohagakure whom now lived in Taki no Kuni whom was in possession of a priceless ancient katana that had been in his family for centuries. However the rich merchant had been tipped off that there would possibly be an attempt to steal said katana within the few days. Being still loyal to Konohagakure, he had immediately sent for help from said village. Kyomi was that help. And, if all went as planned, she'd stop the thief who was believed to be coming either this day or the next, and be on her way back home.

Within the next hour Kyomi reached the large home of the rich merchant. It was surrounded by the thick foliage of Taki no Kuni, yet not too far from a fairly large village. The outer wall of the complex was patrolled by guards, but the security inner area was no where near as tight. This made Kyomi slightly curious; most people would have added as many guards and security measures as possible. Filing this away for further reference, Kyomi entered the complex, effortlessly slipping past the guards and making her way towards the merchant's inner rooms.

Kyomi searched the complex for only a minute or so before finding the room she was looking for. Entering it, she found a balding middle-aged man of average looks pacing back and forth nervously. Kyomi cleared her throat, alerting the man to her presence. Said man immediately jumped and then whirled around to face her, a sweat breaking out across his face. When he saw her in her ANBU mask however, the man let out a sigh as he relaxed again.

"Keimeki Tadao, I presume?" Kyomi said.

"A-ANBU-san," Tadao greeted back. He seems more relaxed than he was before, but was still fairly jittery. Apparently knowing how these things worked, he raised a shaking hand and point back down the way the silver haired ANBU had come. "The katana is kept by itself in a sealed room six doors down that way. It's in the center of the complex."

Kyomi nodded and, having the information she needed, and turned to leave the room. "W-wait!" Tadao suddenly said, taking a step forward. When Kyomi looked back at him he immediately flushed and then dipped into a clumsy bow. "Thank you!" Though he couldn't see it, a smile tugged at the corner of Kyomi's mouth. She nodded to him again and then disappeared.

Kyomi made her way quickly to the room that Tadao had described. Slipping in through the sliding door and then closing it again behind her, she surveyed the inside. The room itself was of average size with nothing really noticeable about it. It was, however, completely empty except for a single pedestal covered in seals standing in the center of the room. What was sitting on top of the pedestal, however, honestly made Kyomi breathe in sharply.

It was the ancient katana that she had been told about, and yet, it was so much more. Kyomi didn't think that she'd ever seen anything like it before. The hilt of the katana was wrapped with gold wire it a way that was done tastefully and seemed to blend into the hilt. The hilt itself behind the wire was made of some sort of black metal, offsetting the gold perfectly. The blade however, was what really caught and held Kyomi's attention.

The metal of the katana's blade gleamed silver as though it was new, not centuries old, and, as Kyomi walked closer, she noticed that the entire length of the metal was engraved with miniscule, almost invisible designs. Peering closely at the katana, she noticed that the small designs actually made up a scene. It was a battle between what appeared to be several different demons, possible biju or lesser beasts. It was done in incredible detail that left Kyomi standing in awe. Never had she seen anything like this. Never had she thought that something like this was even _possible_.

Kyomi's reaction to this katana was actually quite out of character for her. She had always scorned blades that were made simply for decorative purposes, calling them useless. This time though, she couldn't even bring herself to think a negative thought about the sword. She immediately understood why it was considered priceless and why someone was out to steal it. Or, at least, she thought she did.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Kyomi purposely ignored the ancient katana and checked the perimeter and structure of the room. She then set up a couple of traps around the room that no one, not even the person who would trip them would notice. They would not affect the person whom tripped them in anyway, but rather just alert Kyomi to said persons presence. Once she was satisfied with her job, Kyomi took up post in one of the shadowed corners of room, where she could see everything, but anyone who entered wouldn't be able to see her immediately.

* * *

Kyomi stayed in her spot, diligently keeping watch, until late into the night. Despite what one might think, she was just as sharp as when she had started. After years and years of having to take on missions similar to this one, Kyomi had learnt many tricks to keep herself alert during long hours of inactivity. For the most part today she had kept her self busy by focusing on all of the sounds around and separating out those sounds from each other so that eventually she was able to map out everything that was happening in the immediate area in her head.

Offhandedly, Kyomi thought that she would have to bring Naruto on one of these missions some time. She could probably easily get permission from the Godaime, considering the aging woman had a soft spot for Naruto. And such a mission would be really good for the blonde; it would help to teach him patience. He needed more practical experience for what he was learning anyway. After all, that was a part of the reason why she left him that "final exam"

Suddenly Kyomi's instincts went wild. None of the alarms had been tripped, but the silver haired kunoichi's life had been save more than once by blindly trusting her instincts, so she quickly flashed through some handseals and activated all three of the stealth jutsu. Just as she disappeared from sight, the shadows around the wall across from her converged on one spot and bugled outward. From these a person stepped outward, landing lightly on the floor.

Kyomi watched the person with narrowed eyes. A shadow user? But she had never heard of any jutsu like this. Even the Nara, who were infamous for their mastery over the shadows couldn't actually travel _through_ them. Standing up silently, Kyomi studied the apparent thief. They were wearing all black clothing, had a slight build, and their shape alerted Kyomi to the fact that they were female. The shadow kunoichi was just about as tall as Kyomi, though maybe an inch or two shorter; 5'5 then, Kyomi estimated, and probably only around her own age. She had long raven black hair that was held back in a braid that reached down to her knees. This was surprisingly similar to Kyomi's on hairstyle, only this kunoichi's braid was completely wrapped in silver bandages**(1)**. Kyomi could not tell what her face looked like, however, because a mask similar to that of an ANBU rested on the other kunoichi's face. This mask, however, was pure black with no designs on it and only a slitted pair of eyeholes.

Carefully, Kyomi approached the shadow kunoichi, getting ready to knock her out, when abruptly said kunoichi looked up straight at Kyomi. Kyomi immediately froze. Checking, she could tell that her jutsu were still up, so then how could the intruder have known where she was? As if sensing her thoughts, the shadow kunoichi began to chuckle.

"So someone caught wind that this attempt would be made, eh?" she murmured. "I figured that something like this would happen." Despite the fact that she was facing an ANBU, the kunoichi didn't seemed to be at all concerned. In fact, she seemed completely at ease! The kunoichi continued to look at Kyomi and seemed to sense the unasked question hanging in the air. "Oh, don't worry," the shadow kunoichi said with a smirk in her voice. "Your jutsu are working just fine. I just have other ways of sensing you." The kunoichi reached behind her back and pulled out a large gleaming scythe with a black metal handle. "In fact, it's really too bad that I was the one you had to run into." The kunoichi then lowered into a fighting stance. "I hope you said goodbye to your family before you left."

Kyomi's reaction was immediate. She dropped the scent jutsu, not needing it, but kept the other two up. At the same time she pulled her katana out of it's sheathe and leapt and the other kunoichi, wanting to incapacitate her before things went any further. Said kunoichi put her scythe up before her, blocking Kyomi's strike with the metal handle of her weapon. Kyomi quickly spun away and struck again, only to be blocked once more. As Kyomi stepped back, the shadow kunoichi took the time to swing her scythe forward. Had Kyomi not flipped backward at the last moment, the strike would have cleanly lopped her head off her shoulders.

Kyomi moved down into a crouch as she narrowed her eyes at the other kunoichi. Whoever this girl was, she was skilled and she knew exactly what she was doing with her blade. Knowing that she didn't have anymore time to think, Kyomi quickly sheathed her own blade once more and began to run through a set of handseals. Some how knowing what she was doing, the other kunoichi immediately tensed up.

Finishing gathering her chakra, Kyomi murmured, "**Sensatsu Suisho** (_A Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death_)," Immediately following, innumerous tiny needles made of water condensed from the air around them--and fortunately the air was pretty humid since they were in Taki no Kuni--and flew at extreme speeds toward the shadow kunoichi. Without waiting for the needles to even hit said girl, Kyomi began to make another set of handseals.

Meanwhile, the shadow kunoichi made a strange twisting motion with her hands. As if responding to a call, the shadows in the surrounding area began writhing as if alive before warping and then coming up to form a nearly solid shield in front of the kunoichi, saving her from the attack. Kyomi's eyes widened in shock behind her mask and, though she still finished the jutsu that she was working on, her mind was reeling. The kunoichi hadn't used any handseals. The shadows had just obeyed her, bending to her will.

"**Raizou Ikazuchi wo Utte** (_Thunderbolt Strike_)!"

From Kyomi's hands shot a single, but powerful, bolt of electricity. The shadowy shield that had stopped the needles from her last attack managed to deflect the majority of the attack, but the water left over from the needles was in puddles on the floor and it acted as a conduit for the attack, just a Kyomi had wanted. As the electricity hit her, the shadow kunoichi swore and leapt on the wall behind her, but she was still hurt from the attack.

Angrily she glared at Kyomi. "Fine," she snarled. "You want to get tricky? Then playtime's over!" As she spoke the kunoichi violently shoved her hands forward. In immediate response the shadows around Kyomi surged up, and almost literally swallowed her up before Kyomi's eyes could even widen completely in surprise. The shadows then twisted inward and a sickening squelching echoed through the room**(2)**.

Smirking victoriously, the shadow kunoichi dropped her hand and let the shadows fall away and revert back to their normal insubstantial form. As they did though, they revealed a simple wooden log instead of a bloody corpse. The kunoichi's eyes widened behind her obsidian mask, but before she could react further she froze at the feeling of a cold blade resting against the skin of her neck.

Kyomi was standing behind the shadow kunoichi, holding a kunai to her neck. "Not so fast," she murmured quietly. The shadow kunoichi slid her eyes around and looked at Kyomi, revealing deep sapphire blue eyes. The two stood in place like that, staring at one another, before suddenly they both snapped into action.

Shadows rose of and shattered the kunai at the dark haired kunoichi's neck while, at the same time, Kyomi leapt backward and pulled her katana out of its sheath again. Without waiting for the shadow user to attack, she placed her katana before her and started channeling chakra into the blade. Then, with a growl of, "**Kaze no Mai** (_Dance of the Wind_)!" she attacked, swinging her blade downward.

As the blade swung down the sharp whistling of the wind followed it and, though the shadow kunoichi managed to avoid the blade, her eyes widened at as a blade made entirely of compressed air continued on from where the metal blade of the katana had stopped. Reacting entirely on instinct, the kunoichi flung herself backward and only a few strands of hair were cut. The blade of wind, however, continued on past her, straight for the ancient katana that was lying on its pedestal.

Both of the kunoichi froze in their spots, watching with muted horror as the blade made its way toward the katana. When the blade reached it, it sliced cleanly through the katana's blade before slowly dissipating. Immediately a large pulse of light erupted from the katana, momentarily blinding the two in the room. When the light subsided the katana lay on its pedestal, broken in half, with nothing to show what had caused the light.

"_Fuck_," the shadow kunoichi swore angrily. She glared at Kyomi briefly before suddenly melting into the shadows--literally--before Kyomi could even make a move to stop. Not a few seconds after the door to the room suddenly slid open sharply, revealing a heavily breathing Tadao with multiple guards around him.

"What happened?" Tadao asked, stepping into the room. "We saw a bright light and then--" Abruptly Tadao cut himself off, his eyes widening in shock as he what had happened to the katana. "Kami..." he breathed. He began to walk toward the pedestal, but Kyomi quickly released her invisibility jutsu stopped him.

"No," she said sharply. He instantly stopped, watching as Kyomi began to stride toward the pedestal. Stopping just in front of said pedestal, Kyomi studied the broken katana meticulously before warily reaching out a hand a grasped the lower half of the katana by its hilt. She paused for a moment then, as if expecting the sword to do something, before lifting up it up to look at. To her shock, Kyomi saw that the blade appeared to have a hollow center. She didn't even think that was possible, but the blade before her said otherwise. Kyomi continued to stare at the katana with narrowed eyes, ignoring Tadao as he approached in the background.

The Godaime would need to know about this.

* * *

A day later Kyomi left the Hokage's office unsatisfied. She had explained her mission in great detail to the Godaime, but neither of them had been able to come up for an explanation for what had happened. And on top of that, the fact that the shadow kunoichi had just left after the blade broke also bothered her. Even with the object of her mission destroyed, the kunoichi should have still taken the blade back to whoever had hired her. The whole situation seemed to be a bit off.

And then, of course, there was the question of who exactly the shadow kunoichi was. She'd been wearing a mask so Kyomi hadn't been able to see her face, but, besides that there were absolutely no records of anyone being able to control shadows like she'd been able to. Even the Godaime was completely baffled about this kunoichi, not to mention worried that someone with so much power was out there.

Her mouth set in a tight line, Kyomi began to make her way back to her home. As she went however, she began to hear things that cheered her up immensely. After about ten minutes of walking, Kyomi had a full-blown grin on her face beneath her ANBU mask.

'_It would seem,_' she thought, holding back a snicker. '_That Naruto passed his final exam._' Deciding something on the spur of the moment, Kyomi changed her course and began to head toward the training grounds.

In just a few more minutes, the silver haired kunoichi entered Training Ground #38. She took to the trees then, moving quickly and silently toward the center of the area. When she reached the area she was heading for Kyomi was not at all surprised to hear the sounds of flesh meeting wood; Naruto was already there, training. Kyomi was surprised, however, to find that she was actually quite happy to see the blonde haired Genin again; it appeared that she really had missed him.

"Well," Kyomi said as she dropped down from the trees. "It would appear that at least you're not shirking on your training like I told you to."

Hearing her voice, Naruto quickly spun around, two kunai instantly in his hands. When he noticed who is was however, a large smile quickly came onto his face.

"Kyomi-sensei!" he said happily. "You're back!"

Kyomi smirked. "Of course," she replied teasingly. "Did you honestly think something as small as an A-class mission would keep me away for long?"

Naruto laughed brightly at her mock arrogance. A smirk played at the corners of his own mouth. "Well, I did wonder..."

Kyomi playfully hit him over the head, truly enjoying their banter. "Anyways," she said once they had both calmed down. "It would appear that you managed to do pretty well on our exam."

Naruto grinned again. "Yep! You should seen the uproar that the village was in all in yesterday after the prank was discovered." Naruto couldn't help but snicker.

"Yes," Kyomi sighed regretfully. "Now I really wish that I had given you the exam during a time when I was still here." Kyomi looked up to the sky mournfully before grinning at Naruto again. "Well, anyway, since you managed to meet all of the requirements that I set, you have officially passed your stealth training!"

Naruto whooped and jumped up. "Awesome!" he exclaimed, his eyes bright.

Kyomi chuckled. "And, since you have done that, we'll be starting on a new jutsu tomorrow during training. Besides that though, I also remember saying that I'd have a special surprise for you..."

Naruto immediately perked up, curious. He was already super excited about being to learn _another_ jutsu, and now he really wanted to know what else Kyomi had in store for him. Seeing Naruto's interest, Kyomi smirked again. Then, moving slowly just for suspense, she reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a scroll. Crouching down, Kyomi laid the scroll on the ground and then opened it all the way. The scroll was only about 3 feet long and was completely blank.

Naruto blinked down in surprise, wondering what Kyomi was doing. Before he could even open his mouth to ask however, Kyomi suddenly channeled some chakra into the scroll and then reached in a pulled something out. '_A storage scroll?_' was all Naruto managed to think before his mind stopped and his jaw dropped in surprise--and awe--at what Kyomi had pulled out.

It was an axe, a weapon that Naruto had never personally seen before and that had only been taught about in the academy. This one was a double bladed battle axe and the blades were made of some sort of black metal. Engraved onto both blades was a dragon. The main grip was black and gold, but the lower part of the handle was deep blue**(3)**. It was a fairly simple weapon with no frills or extra decoration, but was still incredible despite that, perhaps even because of it.

Seeing Naruto's expression, Kyomi smirked again. "Like it?" she asked. Naruto just nodded dumbly. Kyomi chuckled again and the continued, "You need a weapon to use other than just kunai and shuriken. Considering your fighting style, I figured that an axe would probably fit you best." She then held the weapon out to Naruto, who took it slowly, his finger tightly grasping the handle.

Naruto stared at the weapon in his hands for a moment, shocked, before looking up at Kyomi. "Thank you..." he whispered.

Kyomi smiled back at him, ruffling his hair slightly. "Sure, Hige-kun." She then rolled the scroll back up and handed it to the blonde. "Keep it in this storage scroll," she told him. "It's already keyed to your chakra."

Naruto nodded, but then flushed slightly. "Umm, Kyomi-sensei..." he began tentatively, "I don't really know how to wield an axe..."

"Don't worry," Kyomi grinned. "I've already arranged for you to take lessons from Kenmaru-san."

Naruto blinked. "Kenmaru? Isn't he that one shopkeeper?" Naruto's eyes then widened in realization. "Wait a minute! This axe is one of those other items that you ordered isn't it!"

"But of course."

Naruto continued to stare at Kyomi for a moment later, before smiling again. "Thank you Kyomi-sensei. I don't think that I'll ever be able to repay you for what you've done for me."

Ignoring Kyomi's suddenly red face, Naruto looked up at the sky, where the sun was beginning to set. Perhaps, one day, he _would_ be able to accomplish his goal of becoming the Hokage.

* * *

**Preview of Chapter 9: The Mission**

_Kyomi was broken out of her reverie when she noticed that she had arrived at her destination. She slipped inside soundlessly before bowing low to the Godaime._

_"Hokage-sama," she greeted._

_The Godaime looked up at her and then set her paper work off to the side. She then clasped her hands and front of her on her desk and studied the silver haired ANBU before her. Finally, after a moment, she spoke._

_"Ookami, I have a mission for you."_

_Beneath her mask, Kyomi frowned. She had just come back from a mission not four days ago and the Godaime wanted her to go out again? What about Naruto? Usually Tsunade was very good about only giving her missions every two weeks or so. That must mean that this was pretty important..._


	10. Chapter 9: The Mission

A/N: A bunch of people have been asking me when Itachi is going to come in, but don't worry! He'll make his first appearance in chapter 12 or 13. So it won't be long yet (**grins**) Well, please read, _review_, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Again, I got this translation off of the internet, so please let me know if it's wrong. As far as I know however, metaru translates to metal and ryuujin translates to dragon god/king.

(2) - Hi no Kuni translates to Land of Fire. It's the country that Konoha is in.

(3) - As far as I know, we've never been told Team Gai's exact number, so I'm just going to refer to then as Team Gai for now. If anyone _does_ know what their team number is, please tell me ASAP.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 9  
_The Mission_

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The next month was absolutely insane for Naruto. If he'd been worn out before by training, now he was just about dead. His schedule was hectic; he was always doing some sort of training, and he didn't think that he even had any time to himself anymore, except in the mornings. Even then though he didn't have too much time, since he had started sleeping in later in order to get a bit more sleep.

Every day Naruto would head out to his team meeting. About two or three times a week they would go on a mission, but most of the time Kakashi would just let them go for training. Naruto would then head over to wherever they were meeting for training that day--Kyomi had started having them move around again--and, once there, would have to find Kyomi. He was getting better at his tracking though, and Kyomi had begun removing all hints and clues of her passage.

Once the actual training began, Kyomi would start him off with his physical conditioning, followed by her "reaction time" exercise, and then a spar. Once that was done they'd work on whatever jutsu Kyomi was currently teaching him. Naruto was proud to say that just in that month he'd learnt five new jutsu. Well, nearly five at least; he was still working on mastering that fifth one.

Once the sun started to set, Kyomi would let him go and he'd head over to Kenmaru's shop. Kenmaru lived in an apartment above his shop and, surprisingly, he had a large training room up there too. The two of them would use that for Naruto's training and the blonde was quickly becoming very proficient with his axe; Kyomi had been correct in thinking that the weapon would compliment his style well. The older man still creeped Naruto out a bit--and the blonde often found himself wondering about Kenmaru's sanity, or, rather, lack there of--but he was a very skilled weapons master.

Speaking of his axe, Naruto was finding out that he loved the weapon more and more each time he used it. It was perfect because it had such power behind it, like a mace, but also had a blade--well, two if you wanted to be exact--for extra damage. Not to mention that Naruto thought that it just looked awesome. After a few weeks of learning to wield his axe, Naruto had gotten around to giving his weapon a name. He decided to call it Metaru no Ryuujin, Metal Dragon God**(1)**. Kyomi loved it and even Kenmaru had grinned proudly when he told them the name.

Naruto smiled at the water from where he stood on the red bridge of Training Ground #7. He couldn't believe that it had already been just about two months that he'd been under Kyomi's tutelage. The time had just whipped by so fast, and yet Naruto could already tell that he'd grown so much stronger in that short time span. He knew that he'd be more than ready for the Chuunin exam when it came in two months.

At that moment Kakashi arrived. "We need to head over to the Hokage tower," he said seriously before Naruto and Sakura could even shout out their ritual greeting. Naruto frowned slightly as he pushed off the bridge's railing and began to walk after his team. This sounded serious. Were they going to be going on a C-class mission or something? That wouldn't be good; Naruto didn't want to miss out on more training than necessary.

Still frowning, Naruto decided that he'd just have to see to find out.

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Kyomi sighed from behind her ANBU mask as she approached the Hokage's office. She had been called just a little while ago by the Godaime. Kyomi hoped that this didn't take too long, as she didn't want for Naruto to be wandering around the training ground looking for her when she wasn't even there in the first place. Though, granted, that would allow Naruto to experience a wild goose chase or a cold trail. Hmm, maybe she'd have to actually do that sometime...

Kyomi was broken out of her reverie when she noticed that she had arrived at her destination. She slipped inside soundlessly before bowing low to the Godaime.

"Hokage-sama," she greeted.

The Godaime looked up at her and then set her paper work off to the side. She then clasped her hands and front of her on her desk and studied the silver haired ANBU before her. Finally, after a moment, she spoke.

"Ookami, I have a mission for you."

Beneath her mask, Kyomi frowned. She had just come back from a mission not four days ago and the Godaime wanted her to go out again? What about Naruto? Usually Tsunade was very good about only giving her missions every two weeks or so. That must mean that this was pretty important...

"This mission," Tsunade continued, pulling a piece of a paper in front of her. "Is classified as a high A-class mission with the possibility of becoming S-class. It will be an undercover/protection/espionage mission." Tsunade then reached across her desk and handed Kyomi a thick scroll. "The details of the mission are in here, but I want to explain the basics to you first right now."

Kyomi nodded sharply, slipping the scroll away, and then waited for the Godaime to continue.

"The mission itself actually consists of two parts. In the first part you will help two Genin teams with escorting Kurosaki Daichi, the son of a rich merchant, back to his father's estates in Hajime, a large city in the northern part of Hi no Kuni**(2)**. The Genin teams will be told that this is just a C-class mission to protect Kurosaki-san from bandits, and for them it will be. However, Kurosaki Daichi's father, Kurosaki Hideaki, has informed us of some strange activities that have been going on. Apparently there is a very large possibility that there will be an attempt to kidnap Kurosaki Daichi just after he arrives back in Hajime.

"You will be going under cover in this mission as a young woman from Hajime who is returning to her home after a vacation here in Konohagakure no Sato visiting relatives. You will be going with the Genin teams and Kurosaki-san because you just happened to be leaving at the same time and are paying for protection as well. You will accompany the group to Hajime but return on your own after the completion of your mission. The only reason that you'll be going with the Genin teams and Kurosaki-san in the first place is just in case the kidnapping attempt occurs before they reach Hajime.

"The second part of your mission will be stopping the kidnapping of Kurosaki-san. After arriving in Hajime you will accompany Kurosaki-san--while still in you disguise--to his estate. Most likely the attempt will happen some time during this time, but if not then you will be offered a place to stay at the Kurosaki estate.

"When the attempt does happen you are to protect Kurosaki-san at all costs. You are to attempt to capture the kidnapper alive in order to find out who they are and who they were sent by, but Kurosaki-san's life comes first no matter what. If you do capture the kidnapper, get whatever information out of them that you can before bringing them with you back to Konohagakure. Do you have any questions?"

Kyomi shook her head mutely, attempting to digest all of the information that she had just been given. She already knew that more information and the mission and Kurosaki Daichi would be in the scroll she had been given just a few minutes earlier, as well as all of the information she would need on the disguise persona she'd be taking on.

As the Godaime opened her mouth to continue however, something popped into Kyomi's head. "Ah, wait, Hokage-sama," Kyomi said. Tsunade nodded for the silver haired ANBU to continue. "May I inquire as to who the two Genin teams are?"

Tsunade smirked, a mischievous light coming into her eyes. "Yes," she said. "They are Team 7 and Team Gai** (3)**."

Kyomi had to hold back a chuckle. Of course this was why the Godaime was having her go on a mission so soon. But having Team Gai as well...Kyomi sighed silently. That was going to be interesting, especially since both Kakashi and Gai would both be there...

The Godaime smirked again before continuing on, "You have half an hour to prepare for this mission. As soon as you're done report back here in disguise to meet with the two Genin teams and Kurosaki-san. You're dismissed."

Kyomi bowed to the Godaime Hokage before vanishing from the office with a poof of smoke. She needed to get to her apartment quickly so that she could pack and change into her disguise. She would also have to stop by Kenmaru's shop to let him know that both she and Naruto would be gone for a little while. Very aware of how much time she had, Kyomi pulled the scroll she had been given from her pouch, opened it, and began to meticulously study the contents. Within the next half an hour, she needed to know all of this information like the back of her hand.

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A little while later, Team 7 entered the Hokage Tower. Naruto had a slight frown on his face. He was worried that Tsunade would give their team a C-class mission, which he had a hunch that she would. She had been good so far about not giving their team any, thus allowing them to train a lot more, but it had been more than two months since their last C-class mission, which was a long time for even a Genin team.

As soon as Team 7 entered the Hokage's office--which was worrying enough, considering as they almost always went to the mission center, even for C-class missions--Naruto's eyes narrowed. Tsunade looked amused, which was rarely a good sign. As her eyes met Naruto's that amusement only increased, causing the Genin's eyes to narrow further. Still, he had to throw off his suspicions for now, so the blonde quickly put a large grin on his face.

"Hey, Obaba-san!" Naruto exclaimed. He then had to duck the heavy paperweight that was thrown at his head. Said paperweight made a good sized whole in the wall and then a scream of pain was heard from outside the room. All of the occupants--save for Tsunade herself--winced in sympathy.

"Brat..." Tsunade grumbled under her breath. She couldn't help the slight smile that slipped onto her face though. Speaking up, the blonde Hokage continued, "Good, you're here. Now we just need to wait for--"

Before she could even finish her sentence the door to the office slammed open. The Genin of Team 7 spun around in surprise, while Tsunade sighed and Kakashi buried his nose further into his book, mentally groaning. Into the room stepped Team Gai. Gai himself was grinning widely--and sparkly--with an excited Lee hovering near his side. Neji and Tenten simply looked resigned.

"Fear not!" Gai bellowed out. "For the Green Beast of Konoha has arrived!" Lee cheered, throwing his fist up into the air, but the other occupants of the room sweatdropped.

Tsunade sighed again. "Well, let's get started then," the Godaime began, straightening in her seat and taking on a more formal tone. "I have called you two teams here for a mission."

Naruto sighed. He knew this was going to happen. Out of the corner of his eye however, he noticed that Kakashi didn't look surprised in the lease bit, not even of Gai's arrival. The silver haired Jounin probably already knew about the mission and what it entailed; this was supported by the fact that he didn't even appear to be paying attention. Naruto wondered if this meant that Kyomi knew as well. This would probably be a longer mission, so Naruto hoped that he had time to let her--and Kenmaru--know about it, if she didn't already.

As Tsunade continued, Naruto shifted his focus back onto her. "This is classified as a C-class mission and is a basic escort mission. You will be taking the client to Hajime, protecting him from any bandit attacks that may occur on the way, before returning on your own to Konohagakure no Sato."

Naruto's eye narrowed once more. Something seemed off about this. "Eh?" he spoke up, putting on a confused face. "If it's just an escort mission then why do we need two Genin teams? I could do this on my own!" The other Genin murmured agreement, though some of them--namely Sasuke, Neji, and Sakura--shot annoyed glares at him for the last part.

Tsunade smirked lightly. This, at least, was proof that Naruto was perceptive, even if this was one thing that he shouldn't dig into. Kyomi would probably keep him in line during this actual mission however.

"It's because of the client," the Godaime answered. She then turned to Shizune, her dark haired assistant who was standing off to the side. "If you will?" Shizune nodded before quickly slipping out the room. She returned not a minute later with a man in tow.

The man was every bit a noble, from his attire, to the way he walked. He had shoulder length dark brown hair that was tied back at the nape of his neck and brown eyes that held a surprising kindness in them. He also was wearing a traditional man's kimono that was dark blue in color with a brown trim and traditional sandals adorned his feet. He appeared to only be in his mid to late twenties.

"This," Tsunade began as the man moved to stand by her. "Is Kurosaki Daichi, son of Kurosaki Hideaki, who is one of the richest merchants in Hi no Kuni. He is paying to have two Genin teams escort him to his home." She then turned to Daichi. "Kurosaki-san, these are the two teams. The two Jounin leaders are Maito Gai and Hatake Kakashi." The Godaime gestured to each person as she spoke. Upon hearing Kakashi's name, Daichi's eyebrows raised slightly. Doubtless he had heard of the famed Copy-nin and was surprised that he would be one of his escorts.

Tsunade opened her mouth to continue, when the door opened once more and, again, everyone turned to face it. Standing uncertainly in the doorway was a young woman, probably on in her late teens or early twenties. She had long waist length chocolate brown hair that hung like a curtain around her and warm blue eyes. Her physique and height were average, though it was partially hidden by the cream and red kimono that she wore.

Immediately, a smile came unbidden onto Tsunade face. "Ah, yes," she said, addressing the Genin and Daichi. "And this is Haruka Amaya. She has been here in Konohagakure visiting relatives and will be joining you on trip back to Hajime, which is where she hails from as well. She has paid for escorts, and so, with Kurosaki-san's permission we have joined to two groups. Please, come in, Haruka-san."

The girl nodded and stepped inside, obviously nervous about being around so many shinobi. Growing up and living in a non-shinobi village probably did that to a lot of people, Naruto thought, eyeing her. Naruto couldn't squash the suspicion that had risen in him the moment he first saw her. There was something familiar about her, as if he'd seen her somewhere before...

"Well," Tsunade continued, addressing the Genin once more. "I'm giving you twenty minutes to go home, pack supplies, and come back here, starting now. Get moving."

The Genin blinked at the abrupt dismissal, but quickly scattered out of the room nonetheless. Naruto was the last one out, a slight frown on his face. Considering that they would be moving at a civilian pace, it would probably take 3-4 days to reach Hajime, and then just about a day for them to return to Konohagakure no Sato. Plus, if they were attacked by bandits, that would also take some extra time. Overall, the trip would probably take about five days. Naruto's frown deepened. Five days without any training was a long time.

Just as the door to the Hokage's office closed behind him, Naruto felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. Surprised, the blonde whirled around to find Haruka Amaya standing behind him. He narrowed his eyes at the smirk on her face, which was so different from her attitude just a minute ago in the room. His shoulders were tense, but his mouth dropped at her next words.

"Lost in thought, Hige-kun?"

Naruto stared at the young woman before him in utter shock. How did she know that nickname?! As far as he knew, not even Kakashi knew of it! To make it worse, as Naruto stood frozen, the woman's blue eyes glittered with amusement. Naruto's thoughts immediately froze. Wait, those eyes! His jaw dropped even further as realization dawned on him. Her eyes were exactly the same as--

"--Kyomi-sensei?!"

The woman chuckled, her smirk widening into a grin. "Took you long enough," she said in reply, her familiar voice warm with amusement. She reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair. Said blonde was still too surprised to even attempt to bat away her hand like he usually did.

"You-- How...why-- ...What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed, his eye twitching slightly.

The now revealed Kyomi chuckled again. "Sorry, Hige-kun," she said with a wink. "But that's classified information."

Naruto frowned, but nodded in acquiescence anyway. "So," he continued, suddenly brightening up. "That means that you're coming with us?"

"Yep!"

"...And Kakashi-sensei and Maito-san know that you're...you?"

"Yep!"

"...Huh...weird."

Kyomi scowled playfully at Naruto, before chuckling again. "Yeah, I guess so." She then groaned, hanging her head. "But this means that I'm going to have be with Kakashi-nii-kun and Gai-san for _soooo_ long."

Naruto had to laugh slightly at this, though he too felt some trepidation coiling in the pit of his stomach. He'd never been on an extended mission with Team Gai and, honestly, he wasn't completely looking forward to it.

"So, Kyomi-sensei," Naruto said, looking Kyomi over more closely than he had before. "How come you didn't change your eyes with your henge? They're the only reason I was really able to recognize you."

Kyomi smirked again. "Henge? What henge?" she answered, to Naruto's confusion. "All I've done is dyed my hair and changed my clothes."

"Really?" Naruto asked, blinking in surprise. That was surprising considering as she looked so vastly different than she had before. "How come? Wouldn't a henge disguise you better?"

"It would, but it would also take way too much chakra to keep up for all of the days that I'll be in disguise. It would leave me too drained. And besides that, some shinobi of higher ranking can sense when chakra is being used. They--or even just a mediocre shinobi who is suspicious--could use a simple dispelling technique and then I would be revealed." Kyomi chuckled lightly. "You're going to have to learn not to rely on chakra too much. You'd be surprised at how much you can substitute civilian methods for shinobi methods with just a little creativity."

Naruto nodded, obviously mulling over this information. Offhandedly, he had to wonder just how it was that even a simple conversation with Kyomi ended with him learning something new.

"Well," Kyomi continued, a smirk coming onto her face. "What are you waiting around here for? You've only got fifteen minutes to go and get your stuff now." Naruto's eyes widened and then he quickly spun on his heel and dashed away, cursing under his breath. "And don't forget to wear your newer outfit!" Kyomi called after him. An unintelligible shout from the blonde was her reply.

Shaking her head while still chuckling, Kyomi walked back into the Hokage's office.

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Once everyone--that is to say Kyomi, Kakashi, Gai, and Daichi--were settled in the Hokage's Office, Tsunade continued with the more official business.

"Kurosaki-san," she said. "Haruka-san is the ANBU who is assigned to this mission." Kyomi gave Daichi a cool nod, her face a mask of indifference. Daichi nodded back, slight nervousness on his face. "For the length of the journey Haruka-san will stay in character. Even if you are attacked during the journey she will not intervene unless your life is in immediate danger. Hatake-san, Maito-san, and their Genin will still be there to protect you however, so it is highly unlikely that it would come to that. Plus, if everything adds up the way that it should, it is doubtless that you will be attacked before reaching Hajime."

Daichi nodded, still nervous, but apparently gaining a bit of confidence from that fact that he would have three highly skilled shinobi guarding him. "Thank you, Godaime Hokage-sama."

Tsunade smirked, but didn't comment further. After all, this was their job; their life.

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**Preview of Chapter 10: The Bandit's Attack**

_There was no more time to think, however, as the men--bandits, Naruto realized, not shinobi--were nearly upon them. Naruto did the first thing that he could think of: he quickly pulled out his storage scroll and retrieved Metaru no Ryuujin, his axe. He then threw himself into the fighting that had already begun to develop, his axe swinging through the air._

_From there, Naruto lost himself in the fight. There were so many men and they were everywhere. Naruto would cut one down only for another to nearly run him through with a samurai sword. He didn't have any time to think about the blood that quickly began to stain his clothes and splatter across his face, nor to notice the growing pile of bodies that was developing thanks to the group of shinobi. As it was, he barely even noticed when Neji cried out that there was another group attacking from the opposite side of the road._


	11. Chapter 10: The Bandit's Attack

A/N: And now for the long awaited reaction! I had such fun writing this chapter, for several reasons. I've been trying to keep Naruto at least partially in character while slowly changing him as realistically as I can. I think I've done at least a fairly good job of it...Ah, well, thanks so much for the reviews for the last chapter. I'm glad that people are finally starting to reply to this! Please read, _review_, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 10  
_The Bandit's Attack_

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A half an hour later all of the Genin were once again gathered in the Hokage's office. Naruto, however, was still missing, much to some of the others' annoyance. Sakura was squirming in her seat, obviously wanting to yell something out, but unwilling to appear so undisciplined in front of a client. Not to mention that neither her sensei nor Tsunade would be very pleased.

Finally after a minute or so of waiting, the door opened once more, admitting Naruto. Everyone turned around to scold Naruto, but the words died on their lips as they saw exactly what the blonde looked like. Even Kakashi and Tsunade, whom knew that he'd gone through a change, were completely shocked

Naruto was in his black outfit like he usually was for training--high necked black muscle shirt, knee-high combat boots and all--and his black bracer-like weights glinted in the light of the office. Numerous pouches adorned his waist, as well as single scroll. That scroll was the summon scroll for his battle axe, Metaru no Ryuujin, though not even Kakashi knew about that yet.

Naruto's face was calm and relaxed--even to the point of indifference--as he found that it usually was after leaping through the village, keeping hidden. For what ever reason, doing so tended to relax him, while also putting his senses on high alert.

Closing the door behind him, Naruto blinked when he saw the dumbfounded looks everyone was giving him. Even Daichi, who'd only just met him, look surprised! Kyomi however, was attempting to hide her smirk while looking thoroughly amused. At that moment Naruto remembered that no one besides Kyomi and Kenmaru had ever seen him in his outfit. Coloring slightly, the blonde stared down at his feet awkwardly.

Everyone continued to stare at Naruto for a bit longer before Kyomi politely coughed into her hand, breaking everyone out of their stupor. The reactions after the immediate shock however, were far from what Naruto or Kyomi had expected.

Instantly, Sakura leapt up to her feet, pointing an accusing finger at her blonde teammate.

"Naruto, you moron!" she yelled. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Naruto froze, staring wide-eyed at Sakura, who continued to glare at him. "Erm..." he hesitated, not quite sure how to reply to that. Suddenly however, Naruto felt a wave of irritation wash over him. Sure, this was a change from his usual appearance and actions, but did his teammates really think so little of him that they'd just pass off a change as a practical joke?!

Acting upon his emotions, Naruto glared darkly at the pink haired Genin before him, shocking her. Naruto had never reacted to her statements before with anything but whining before, and he'd certainly never _glared_ at her before! Sakura reeled back, open-mouthed, and stared at Naruto.

"What do I think I'm doing?" Naruto practically hissed. "I think I'm getting ready to go on a C-class mission. Is that a problem?"

Sakura quickly shook her head, still too stupefied to do anything else. The rest of the shinobi around the room were quite shocked as well; even Kyomi herself was surprised at Naruto's sudden and violent reaction. She guessed, however, that it was most likely a side effect of the severe scrutiny that he'd been under from the other Genin since he walked through the door just moments before. Even now, she could see that Hyuuga kid staring intensely at him.

"Right, well," Godaime said shaking herself slightly and calling the attention of all the shinobi back to her. "Since everyone's ready then you can all head out."

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One hour later Team 7, Team Gai, Daichi, and Kyomi were all passing through the gates of Konohagakure no Sato, heading northward. It had taken a bit more time to get everything in the order before they'd set out, and now Gai was carrying Daichi's bags on his back, having valiantly volunteered to carry them.

The two teams were actually walking in formation, although Daichi never would have been able to tell. The Genin of Team 7 were walking up front, with Kakashi right behind them. Behind him were Daichi and Kyomi, followed by Gai and then the Genin of Team Gai. Said team had been specifically placed in the back because Neji--whom had his Byakuugan activated--would be able to see if anyone was sneaking up on them from behind.

At that moment, Team 7 was walking along in tense silence. Both Sasuke and Sakura were staring at Naruto from the corners of there eyes, not quite sure what to say. The blonde himself had his hands stuffed into his pockets as he casually moved along. This uncharacteristic calmness about him only unnerved his teammates further.

Finally, after well over fifteen minutes, Sakura gathered up the courage to speak. Sasuke wasn't going to say a word after all, so she decided that it was up to her to question the sudden change in Naruto, even with how violently he'd reacted to her earlier.

"N...Naruto," she began hesitantly. When the whiskered blonde turned his surprisingly piercing gaze on her she paused and gulped for a moment, before suddenly realizing that this was _Naruto_, the dead last, whom she was being intimated by, no matter how he looked right now. That simple thought brought back her confidence and usual personality. She straightened her back and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Naruto," she continued firmly. "Why are you acting so different today?" She paused for another moment and then her eyes suddenly widened, before narrowing once more. "You're trying to be more like Sasuke-kun, aren't you?!" she accused, pointing her finger at the blonde.

Naruto, however, simply snorted and looked away without replying. He liked Sakura and all, but her infatuation with Sasuke, especially after all these years, was starting to get more than a bit ridiculous. Ino had moved on, why couldn't she?

Sakura's hand faltered slightly when Naruto didn't reply. She was unsure how to act now; usually he got riled up very easily, especially when Sasuke was mentioned. This unsettling silence about him, however, left her quite confused. She'd always known how to act around the old Naruto, but this new, quiet Naruto left her floundering in deep water.

After another minute of silence, just when Sakura was starting to content herself with just having a quiet trip, her teammate finally spoke up.

"This is a mission, Sakura," Naruto said quietly, partially repeating what he'd said back in the Hokage Tower. The pink haired girl and Sasuke both immediately looked at him, surprised, but he just continued to monitor his surroundings, meeting neither of their gazes. In truth, he was very nervous about how they would take his sudden change, but he was being careful not to show it. "As such, I'm just dressing appropriately; bright colors tend to stand out too much."

"But..." Sakura hesitated. "But you always wore _orange_ before."

Naruto held back a grimace, but didn't reply. He didn't agree with what he use to wear either--especially now that he was so used to being in black, thanks to Kyomi--but he wasn't going to justify himself to Sakura, especially considering that she didn't know about the Kyuubi. After another moment, Sakura seemed to realize that she wasn't going to get a reply from the blonde and so she too turned her attention back to the forest around them.

About ten feet behind Team 7, Kyomi smirked lightly; it was incredibly amusing to watch Naruto deal with his teammates...Well, it was for _her_ at least.

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The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful and passed by with no problems. When the sun started to set, the group stopped in the woods near the road and set up camp. Dinner passed by quickly and before long everyone was starting to head for bed.

The Genin were going to having to take turns doing sentry duty, with Neji on first watch. By luck of the draw, Naruto got last watch, which meant that he'd get to sleep through the night and just get up quite early. The Jounin and Daichi went to sleep immediately, though Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if the Jounin actually stayed up the whole night.

As Naruto settled in his sleeping bag inside of the small tent that he had to share with Sasuke--Sakura and Tenten were sharing a tent and Neji and Lee shared one as well--he found it a bit difficult to fall asleep. Due to his training with Kyomi, he was used to training late into the night, and then sleeping in the next morning. Kyomi most certainly took advantage of the darkness of the late hours to train him in more stealth, despite the fact that blonde had passed her "test". The ANBU's explanation was simply that he still had a lot of room to improve and that he had to keep training in order to keep his skills sharp. Naruto took these words to heart, and continued to use stealth to get to and from the training grounds.

Despite the blonde haired Genin's difficulty falling asleep, before long he found himself drifting off, thoughts of training still running through his head.

Abruptly, Naruto woke up to a dark shadow hovering over him. He quickly reached out for his kunai, only to relax as his eyes came in focus and revealed that it was just Sasuke.

"What the _hell_," Naruto hissed out angrily.

Sasuke simply stared down at him dispassionately. "It's your turn for lookout duty, dobe," he commented quietly, easily slipping back into his taunting. To his surprise, however, Naruto didn't get upset. Instead, he just nodded calmly and got up, picking up his weapons as he did so. Naruto then left the small tent without another word, leaving Sasuke staring hard after his back.

Unknown to the Uchiha, Naruto's eyes flashed with anger and frustration. He just clenched his jaw determinedly though as he strode forward. Someday, he'd show them. He'd show them all.

Naruto approached a nearby tall tree and leapt into it, landing in a crouch. He quickly flashed through a few handseals and just moments later multiple kagebunshin spread out, surrounding the campsite. The blonde then proceeded to settle onto the tree limb that he was on for a long wait. However, he had not been sitting on the branch for more than a minute when he suddenly felt a warm breath on the back of his neck.

Instantly, Naruto twisted around, pulling out several kunai as he did so. He swiped blindly at whatever it was that was behind him, but someone quickly caught his wrist and twisted it around behind his back, forcing him face down on the tree limb. Naruto snarled upwards at the person holding him down, upset at being taken down so easily, only to freeze as the grinning face of Kyomi came into sharp focus.

Naruto let out a sigh as he let his body relax. Was _everyone_ trying to give him a heart attack tonight?

"Wrong move," Kyomi suddenly growled out, abruptly pressing a kunai up against Naruto's throat. The Genin tensed up once more, surprised, but just as quickly as the pressure had come is disappeared, and suddenly Kyomi was standing several feet away, leaning up against the trunk of the large tree, her arms crossed before her.

Naruto stood up hesitantly, rubbing his throat slightly. To his surprise, as he faced his currently brown haired sensei he found the she was glaring at him.

She growled quietly at him. "Never let your guard down. Not even for me. What would have happened if I'd been an enemy shinobi using a henge?" she demanded.

Naruto hung his head, ashamed. She'd pounded that lesson into him over and over again since the first day that she'd started teaching him all those months ago. He had only dropped his guard on accident before, relieved that it was just her, but he had done it nonetheless. Kyomi was right; if she'd actually been someone else under a henge, he'd be dead already.

Naruto bowed formally toward Kyomi. "Sorry, Kyomi-sensei," he murmured. Said ANBU just rolled her eyes, grumbling under her breath.

"Come on," she said, waving her hand, "We're going to do a bit of training."

Naruto blinked, surprised once more. "But..." he said hesitantly, "What about sentry duty...?"

Kyomi just rolled her eyes again. "You have your kagebunshin on watch, don't you?"

"Er, yeah..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and then bound after Kyomi as she leapt into the darkness.

For the rest of the hours until sunrise Naruto trained with Kyomi. When the first rays of sun began to shine over the horizon she sent him back to the tree that he'd been in before and slipped into her own sleeping bag. It was a good thing too, because not five minutes later some people started to stir and it would have been difficult to explain why both of them had been missing.

The rest of the day turned out to be very boring for Naruto--and indeed everyone else as well. Just like the day before, they spent their entire time walking, only resting every hour or so when Daichi began to tire. The only long break they took though was for lunch; everyone, particularly Daichi, was eager to get to their destination.

Naruto also had another reason to be anxious. Kyomi had told him the night before that every night when he had sentry duty she'd be training him; she wanted to keep up their schedule, especially since she might not get back to Konoha until several days after Naruto himself returned. Naruto was, of course, overjoyed that he'd still be able to train while on the mission.

Just like the day before, Team 7 walked in almost complete silence. Behind them they could hear the voices of Team Gai--though really it was mainly just the voices of Lee and Gai; the other two only interjected comments every now and then--and every now and then the voices of Daichi, Kyomi, or Kakashi. Other than that however, the shinobi were relatively quiet.

The next two days passed in relatively similar states. During the day they would slowly--at least to the shinobi--make their way down the road. During the night, Naruto would always take the last rotation and then use that time to train with Kyomi. By the middle of the third day, when Kakashi announced that they were only about 4-5 hours from Hajime, Naruto was sure that they had bypassed any trouble.

Of course, that's when Murphy's Law kicked into effect.

Naruto had been quietly walking along, staring straight ahead, when suddenly he heard something from off to the left. Quickly, his head snapped to the side, just in time to see a large group of at least twenty men come barreling through the woods. From the back of the group, Naruto heard Neji curse; the long haired boy had kept his Byakuugan deactivated for the past day in order to conserve chakra.

There was no more time to think, however, as the men--bandits, Naruto realized, not shinobi--were nearly upon them. Naruto did the first thing that he could think of: he quickly pulled out his storage scroll and retrieved Metaru no Ryuujin, his axe. He then threw himself into the fighting that had already begun to develop, his axe swinging through the air.

From there, Naruto lost himself in the fight. There were so many men and they were everywhere. Naruto would cut one down only for another to nearly run him through with a samurai sword. He didn't have any time to think about the blood that quickly began to stain his clothes and splatter across his face, nor to notice the growing pile of bodies that was developing thanks to the group of shinobi. As it was, he barely even noticed when Neji cried out that there was another group attacking from the opposite side of the road.

After only a few minutes of the fighting, Naruto began to find himself tiring rather quickly. There just too many of them, even if they weren't shinobi. Almost immediately, Naruto felt like hitting himself over the head; they may not be shinobi, be _he_ was, and he'd spent the last few minutes fighting like some samurai, not even thinking of jutsu.

Quickly, Naruto hefted his axe above his head and began to spin in a circle several times, effectively clearing the space around him. He then plunged the axe in the ground before him, momentarily freeing his hands. Using the few moments that he had before the bandits closed in, Naruto flashed through a series of handseals, activating both **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) and** Muon no Jutsu** (_Soundless Technique_), effectively making him invisible and soundless.

The bandits around the blonde hesitated, surprised. Naruto used that hesitation to quickly pull Metaru no Ryuujin out of the ground--and thus extending his invisibility to it as well--and dash out of the area that he'd been in. It was a good thing to, as not a moment later the bandits all converged on said spot, attempting to find him but only ending up running into each other.

Naruto stood a bit away from the battle for a moment, his eyes raking over the scene. All of the other Genin were currently okay, through almost all of them had at least a few scratches. Kakashi, Gai, Kyomi, and Daichi were off to the side, away from the battle with the two Jounin standing guard in front of their two clients. They easily cut down anyone who dared to approach, so the bandits were putting most of their effort into attempting to overwhelm the Genin. Gai and Kakashi--and Kyomi, by extension--seemed content to just let the Genin fight however, though Naruto had little doubt that they'd jump in if they felt that they truly needed to.

Naruto focused his narrowed gaze back on the bandits once more, memories from all of his previous spars and battles running through his mind. He'd fought before, he assured himself. Hell, he'd been fighting strongly just seconds before. Despite his self reassurances however, the blood that was staining the ground from the fighting was suddenly starting to come into sharp focus, particularly the blood that was smeared across his own face.

The blonde drew in a shaky breath. He'd fought so many times before, yes, but those battles had always been against other shinobi and it had always taken careful skill to win, even in the brutal fight against Sasuke at the Valley of the End. This however...this was completely different. Amongst so many opponents, all he could really do was swing his blade. This was a massacre of a brawl plain and simple. And those bodies down there...most of those men would never get up again.

Naruto felt his hands trembling slightly, but he carefully steeled himself. He could do this he thought. He'd been fighting just moments before. He'd already k-ki...killed...Naruto drew in another shaky breath, still hesitating.

Abruptly, before Naruto's thoughts could go any further, a high pitched scream suddenly pierced through the air. Naruto's head quickly snapped around and the sight that met his eyes caused him to breathe in sharply.

There stood Sakura, her hair in disarray, holding her limp, heavily bleeding arm tightly against her side. In front her stood a wickedly grinning bandit, a bloody sword held out before him. As the man raised the sword above his head, poised for a strike, Naruto quickly snapped out of his shock and rushed into action, not even thinking about what he was doing.

Moving faster than he was sure that he ever had, Naruto sped over to Sakura. He pulled his axe up as he did so and arrived just in time to block the bandit's incoming blow with his own blade.

Immediately, the bandit--and Sakura, though Naruto couldn't see it--froze in shock, staring at where the bandit's sword was meeting resistance in, apparently, midair. Naruto grinned viciously then, remembering that his invisibility jutsu was still activated. Moving swiftly, he shoved the bandit's blade off, unbalancing the man, and slashed forward. The Metaru no Ryuujin met with the man's unprotected midsection and easily cut through the man with a sickening squelch.

Naruto stood frozen in place for a moment, watching the man's body fall in slight shock. He killed many of these bandits already, yes, but he'd always turned away before. He'd never actually watched their faces as their last moments passed and seen the surprise and anguish there. Naruto felt himself shaking with emotions as he gripped so tightly onto the axe in his hands that he could feel it digging into his skin.

Naruto heard a small sound behind him then, and all of the suddenly remember Sakura. He twisted around to face her and, unbeknownst to him, his fluctuating emotions caused his jutsu to drop for just a moment, revealing to his teammate his bloody visage and cold blue eyes. Just as quickly as it'd dropped, the Jutsu strengthened again. And just a second later Naruto leapt away, not feeling comfortable staying in one spot.

Sakura stood frozen in place for several seconds, staring in shock at the place that she'd seen Naruto in. To see the blonde the way that he'd been had been the most shocking and terrifying sight that she'd ever seen. Sakura felt herself shivering. She'd never thought that she'd see the blonde goofball looking like that, even considering his sudden change in demeanor over the past few days. And she definitely never wanted to see it again.

Meanwhile, Naruto found himself quickly cutting through the bandits, his earlier reservations and emotions lost in the rhythm and desperation of battle. His fighting was made even easier by the fact that no one could see him, thanks to his jutsu.

Before long, all of the bandits had been taken care of. While several of them were lying unconscious and wounded, most of them were dead. They had fought viciously--especially for bandits--but none of the shinobi were seriously injured, though Sakura's arm would definitely need some attention.

Exhausted, the Genin moved over to where the Jounin were standing. Kakashi let his eyes rake over them. They were all bloodied, dirty, and sporting various wounds. Even Lee, with his boundless energy, was breathing heavily and looking like he needed a break.

"Some of them had some shinobi training," Neji murmured out, his eyes narrowed.

Sasuke nodded in agreement. "All of them were stronger than your average bandit."

Absently, Kakashi nodded as well, thoughts and scenarios running through his mind. All of the sudden, however, he realized that one person in particular was missing from the group.

"Where's Naruto?"

Immediately, Sasuke swore aloud, spinning around to face the impromptu battle ground. At the same time, Kakashi noticed a couple of emotions, none of them identifiable, cross Sakura's face. Of course, this immediately made him curious, but he knew well enough that now was not the time to ask.

Before things could go any farther however, a tired voice sounded from off to the side.

"Here, sensei."

At the same time, Naruto suddenly came into view, and Kakashi felt the telltale signs of chakra being released. He narrowed his eyes at the Genin, only to have them widen again as he realized just what his appearance was. Several of the other Genin breathed in sharply as well.

Naruto's clothes and skin were stained with blood. Granted, all of the other shinobi's were as well, but not quite to this extent. The boy's usually blonde hair was also changed as well, and now appeared to be tinted red. Kakashi's first thought was that it had something to do with the Kyuubi's chakra, but he quickly realized that it was just blood, as disturbing as that was.

In the Genin's hands was a battle axe that Kakashi had never seen before. Much like its owner, its blade was stained dark with blood. Naruto's face itself had lines in it that hadn't been there just a few minutes ago, adding to his overall tired demeanor. His eyes lids were drooping and his head was bent forward as he leaned on his axe for support, hiding his eyes from view.

Kakashi nodded sharply and then turned to the rest of the group. "We're moving into the woods and out of sight to get reorganized," he ordered in a voice that brooked no argument. "Now."

He then stooped down and picked up Daichi, whom he had knocked out just as the battle had started in order to stop the man from panicking and doing something stupid as he inevitably would have. Gai helped a shaking Kyomi--though they both knew that she was just faking it for the sake of the Genin and whoever could possibly be watching--to her feet and then the two Jounin began to lead everyone into the woods.

They all walked in stunned silence for several minutes, heading well away from the battle site. Finally, Kakashi stopped and set the unconscious form of Daichi down on the forest floor. The Genin followed suit and plopped down in similar states of exhaustion.

Kakashi let his eyes sweep over them once more before he came to a decision in his mind, which he showed with an absent nod of his head. The silver haired shinobi ran through a set of handseals then, murmuring something under his breath.

Instantly, a large amount of water condensed over the group of shinobi and then dropped onto them at once, like a mini waterfall. The entire group was left gasping for breath, shocked.

"What the hell Kakashi-sensei?!" Sakura gasped out, wiping some wet strands of hair from her face.

The Jounin just grinned amiably at her. "I was washing the blood off everyone," he replied, grinning happily. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Kyomi glaring at him; she, out of everyone, had been untouched by the battle, but was now completely soaked anyway. The Genin grumbled slightly but said nothing in reply to Kakashi's statement, noticing that everyone was now cleansed of the blood that had once covered them.

Suddenly Kakashi frowned. Everyone no longer had any blood on them except for Naruto's hair. It still had a slight reddish tinge to it, though less so than before. Kakashi was fearful that it would never come out, which the villagers back home certainly wouldn't appreciate.

Had the Jounin looked closer, he would have also noticed that the engraved dragons on Naruto's Metaru no Ryuujin were also still stained a deep blood red.

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**Preview of Chapter 11: The Merchant's Son**

_The two of them, sensei and student, danced around each other for several minutes, lethal weapons flashing here and there, just missing their marks and leaving the occasional scratch behind. Naruto's movements, Kyomi noted, were fairly erratic and wild, though he managed to defend himself well enough. She let him attack, putting herself mostly on the defensive, allowing all of his repressed emotions to flow out. He needed this, she knew._

_Finally, a couple minutes later, Naruto's movements abruptly faltered. Kyomi adjusted to the speed that he'd dropped down to, slowing down her movements._

_"I..." Naruto faltered, halfheartedly slashing at Kyomi. "I killed someone...How could I have killed someone? Taken away another's life?!" Abruptly Naruto's movements sped up again, a snarl coming to his face. "I'm not that kind of person! I wouldn't just do that...!"_

_Kyomi could see the wild fear and confusion that was lighting up Naruto's eyes, and hear the desperate need for justification in his voice._

_"No," Kyomi murmured. "But what you are is a shinobi."_


	12. Chapter 11: The Merchant's Son

A/N: Hmm, surprisingly I don't really have anything to say right now...We're starting to get into what will become the heart of the story and so action will slowly begin to become a bit more prevalent. I hope my action scenes are up to par (**grins**) Oh, and on a different note, thanks for the different reviews I've been getting; it's always great to get feedback. Anyways, please read, REVIEW, and enjoy! Ja ne!

--Oh, and you'll notice that I'm using different lines now for this story. This is because I got really fed up of the lines on FF not working, and decided to just insert my own.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - This little story thing is a Taoist story. I make no claim to it. --Oh, and as a side note, I had a very similar reaction to Naruto's when I first heard this story in my history class (**grins**)

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 11  
_The Merchant's Son_

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The group rested for another ten to fifteen minutes, during which time Daichi finally woke up. He was told about what happened, and all of the shinobi there could see that the man was infinitely grateful that he'd been unconscious during the battle; doubtless he'd never seen much blood spilt before.

As they sat Sakura stared at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. No matter how much she tried to turn her thoughts to other things, the image of Naruto as he stood soaked in blood, standing over the body of the dead bandit kept on flashing through her mind. Even now, as he leaned against a nearby tree with his eyes closed, the new red hue of his hair jumped out at her, as did the hard lines on his face that made him seem years older than he had that morning.

Kyomi also noticed the change in Naruto. She frowned tightly, staring at him. Finally she came to a decision in her mind. Her eyes flickered over to her older brother's and she managed to catch his gaze. She nodded marginally to him and then placed her arms inside the long sleeves of her traditional kimono, hiding her hands from view as she made handseals.

Naruto, meanwhile, had been relaxing while his brain ran a mile a minute. Abruptly he felt a slight shift of air around him, causing his eyes to snap open. Naruto then gasped, seeing that they rest of the shinobi were gone. He quickly relaxed again, however, when he noticed Kyomi standing before him.

"Hige-kun..." she murmured, her ice blue eyes studying him intensely. Naruto simply turned his head away from her, not meeting her gaze. Though he didn't see it, Kyomi's eyes narrowed at this action.

The next thing that Naruto knew, a kunai had swept through the air and plunged into the trunk of the tree not inches from his head. The blonde immediately jumped away, instinctively pulling out a few kunai from his weapons pouch. He didn't have much time to figure out exactly what had happened however, as he was abruptly bombarded by Kyomi attacking him with her own kunai.

"What the hell?!" Naruto snarled as he defended himself. Kyomi didn't let up at all though.

"Push back harder!" Kyomi snapped.

Snarling, Naruto felt all of his frustration and fear from the last hour or so coming to the surface. Pushing that emotion into his movements, he quickly found himself striking out wildly.

The two of them, sensei and student, danced around each other for several minutes, lethal weapons flashing here and there, just missing their marks and leaving the occasional scratch behind. Naruto's movements, Kyomi noted, were fairly erratic and wild, though he managed to defend himself well enough. She let him attack, putting herself mostly on the defensive, allowing all of his repressed emotions to flow out. She knew that he needed this.

Finally, a couple minutes later, Naruto's movements abruptly faltered. Kyomi adjusted to the speed that he'd dropped down to, slowing down her movements.

"I..." Naruto faltered, halfheartedly slashing at Kyomi. "I killed someone...How could I have killed someone? Taken away another's life?!" Abruptly Naruto's movements sped up again, a snarl coming to his face. "I'm not that kind of person! I wouldn't just do that...!"

Kyomi could see the wild fear and confusion that was lighting up Naruto's eyes, and hear the desperate need for justification in his voice.

"No," Kyomi murmured. "But what you are is a shinobi."

Naruto faltered once more, startled by Kyomi's sudden answer to his rambling, which he'd really just been directing at himself. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

"And shinobi," Kyomi continued obliviously, "Sometimes have to kill. It's what we do; it's our job. Someday, when you become a Chuunin or a Jounin, you're going to be sent on an assassination mission and you'll have to kill some random person whom you've never met before. They won't be like these thugs, and it won't be in protection of yourself. You'll have to kill them simply because you were ordered to."

Naruto stared at Kyomi with wide eyes. He knew that someday he'd have to, of course, but having it put out there in such blatant terms made him realize just how much reality there was in such a situation.

"But how will I be able to...?"

Kyomi shook her head sadly, understanding what the Genin was asking. "You won't," she replied simply. "And you definitely won't be able to do so in good conscious or anything like that." She paused and chuckled sadly. "You're actually kind of lucky; I remember the first time that I had to kill, and it wasn't in a self-defense situation like this. No, it was when I was a Chuunin and was sent on my first assassination mission. I don't think that I came out of my room until two days later, when Kakashi had to physically drag me out to force me to eat something. And I was only damn near half your age too, unfortunately."

Naruto continued to stare at Kyomi with wide eyes, surprised by the sudden insight to her life and younger years. Kyomi just smiled sadly at him, and then sighed.

"Look, Hige-kun, what I'm trying to say is that in the shinobi profession you have to kill. It's unavoidable. For example, say you become the Hokage and then another shinobi village attacks Konoha. What are you going to do? Do you just let them overrun Konoha? Or just try to knock them all out? Both of those options will only lead to the death of Konoha citizens. However, if you strike back, thus killing many of the attackers, Konoha will be saved. Do you understand?"

Hesitantly, Naruto nodded. "Yes," he murmured quietly, his eyes drifting to the ground. "Though I don't like it."

Kyomi let out a bark of a laugh. "Well of course not," she replied with a slight grin. "No one really enjoys it. But it's still necessary." Kyomi paused thinking. "...I'm going to tell you a story."

Abruptly, she dropped down to sit on the ground. Naruto hesitated, surprised, but then sat down as well, sitting before the silver haired ANBU.

"The ruler of the South Sea," Kyomi began, "Was called Light; the ruler of the North Sea, Darkness; and the ruler of the middle kingdom, Primal Chaos. From time to time, Light and Darkness met one another in the kingdom of Primal Chaos, who made them welcome. Light and Darkness wanted to repay his kindness and said, 'All men have seven openings with which they see, hear, eat and breathe, but Primal Chaos has none. Let us try to give him some.' So every day they bored one hole, and on the seventh day, Primal Chaos died."**(1)**

Naruto stared blankly at Kyomi. "...The fuck?"

Kyomi simply laughed in reply, which surprised Naruto; he wasn't sure that he'd ever heard her laugh before. Chuckle, yes, but never laugh. Oblivious to Naruto's surprise--or just ignoring it--Kyomi continued on with her explanation.

"Think of shinobi as being primal chaos," she said. "It's just what we are. We are not light or darkness--we do both kind and compassionate acts and cruel, ruthless acts. The story itself is more so saying that if you try to make things in your own image, you'll kill something else, but, in that same sense, you can also look at it as saying that you cannot try to change the innate essence of things. Yes, you can follow your own path and conduct, but things exist they way that they do for a reason.

"For example, do you honestly think that people are shinobi because they want to kill? No, except for a few exceptions they're shinobi because they just want to be. Killing is just a part of it. It's unavoidable because if you want to protect the things that are dear to you, you're going to have to kill at sometime or another."

"I..." Naruto hesitated. "...Thank you, Kyomi-sensei."

Kyomi smiled lightly and leaned forward and ruffled Naruto's hair, much to the boy's annoyance. He only halfheartedly batted her away though, somewhat enjoying the affectionate gesture, though he'd certainly never tell Kyomi that.

"Come on," Kyomi said after a moment while getting to her feet. "We'd better get back; we still have a little ways to go to get to Hajime."

Naruto nodded and followed his sensei. He knew that it'd still take him a little while longer to fully understand the fact that he'd taken people's lives. But already he could feel that he was well on his way getting over it, or at least accepting it.

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

Kyomi sighed and resisted the urge to run a hand through her hair. Today had not been a good day. And it wasn't just the bandit attack either, but rather the emotional baggage that came with it.

Kyomi had honestly expected that they wouldn't be attacked; the Hokage had made it sound as if it was a very minute possibility. Even when the bandits had attacked though it hadn't been too much of a problem--the Genin had fairly easily taken them down--but it was the anguish that had been on their faces from the knowledge of their first kills that had really dug at her. The anguish that had been on Naruto's face...

As her mind drifted to the blonde boy, Kyomi glance over at him. Naruto seemed to be feeling a bit better, she noticed. But of course, he could just be hiding it.

With a second sigh, Kyomi turned her attention back on the road before them. They were nearly at Hajime now. In fact, if Kyomi was right, then it should be coming into view any moment now. And then, just inside the gates, the Jounin and their Genin teams would head back to Konohagakure not Sato while she and Daichi would continue onward.

Kyomi was actually kind of hesitant to leave the Genin teams. Naruto would be alone for several days after this, which would give him time to stew. Kyomi wasn't sure that she wanted that for him. But Naruto probably _would_ be fine; he'd been through worse things than this in his life. Besides, Kakashi was there for him if he really needed.

The Genin to were hesitant to leave; they sensed that something was off about the whole situation. They had fought the bandits themselves and so knew better than anyone else that the men hadn't been average. They had instantly become suspicious about what was going on, and requested their sensei to allow them to escort Daichi further, just to be safe. The Jounin had firmly said no however, and so, after a couple of protests, the Genin agreed. They seemed to sense that there was more than met the eye to the situation, even if they didn't know exactly what it was.

It only took a couple more minutes to reach the gates of Hajime. The entire group couldn't tell whether they were relieved to finally be there or apprehensive to continue forward.

The gates were guarded by a pair of civilian soldiers. They checked the group's IDs--including Kyomi's fake one--and then allowed them to pass.

Hajime, it appeared, was indeed a very large village. Not quite the size of Konohagakure, granted, but nearly. The streets were crowed with innumerous people milling about, making it almost twice as crowded as Konoha.

Kyomi and the Jounin all understood the reason for this quite well. The village's location was a spot quite easily accessed by almost all of the countries because it was somewhat close to Hi no Kuni's northwestern border. This was good because it meant that the village received a massive amount of people passing through, making it a larger trade center. Its marketplaces were amongst the largest in the world. It was bad, however, because this also meant that foreign shinobi could quite easily slip into the village under the guise of a trader.

Swiftly, the group moved into a little niche away from the crowds and gather around.

"Well," Kakashi said cheerily. "This is where we leave you, Kurosaki-san, Haruka-san. I apologize for the bit of trouble that we had along the way."

"Yes, yes," Daichi murmured distractedly. His eyes were darting all around. After a moment, he turned his attention to Kyomi.

"Come, Haruka-san," he said as he attempted a feeble smile. "It is my duty as a man to make sure that you get home safely."

Kyomi felt her eye twitching, but quickly hid it. After all, the man was just attempting to come up with some sort of an excuse for her to accompany him. That was actually a good thing; she'd been afraid that she'd have to come up with on herself. So, knowing that she had to play along, Kyomi blushed and smiled shyly at Daichi.

"Thanks you, Kurosaki-san."

As Kyomi and Daichi began to leave, Kyomi turned to look at her brother. He, she found, seemed to be begging her with his eyes to be careful. She gave him a nearly imperceptible nod and then vanished into the crowds.

"Ahh," Sakura suddenly cooed, catching everyone's attention. "Those two would be so cute together! It'd be just like one of those 'prince and the peasant' stories!" she finished with a squeal.

Almost instantly, Naruto began gagging, though none of the Genin could figure our why. Mistaking his disgust for laughter, Sakura immediately lashed out.

"Naruto!" she snarled angrily. "Just because _you_ can't appreciate such romance doesn't mean that you should laugh. They would make a good couple!"

Kakashi--whose single visible eye had also gone wide upon hearing Sakura's original statement--suddenly chuckled. "Somehow," he murmured amusedly, "I have to doubt that."

Sakura stared at her sensei questioningly, but he ignored her in favor of staring at the spot where Kyomi had been. A tight frown took over his face as he internally tried to reassure himself that everything was going to turn out fine.

Then why did he have such a bad feeling coiling in the bottom of his stomach?

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Kyomi sighed as she walked side by side with Daichi. The man, who knew the village quite well, had been carefully leading them through the streets. The entire time his eyes had been flickering around nervously and his breath had been coming in short, terrified gasps. It wasn't that, exactly, that bothered her--a little paranoia was good for anyone--but rather the fact that they'd been traveling though less and less populated streets.

Suddenly then, just as Kyomi was warily eyeing the few people that were around, Daichi spilled into a small back alleyway, motioning for Kyomi to follow him. With narrowed eyes she did so.

Kyomi waited until both she and Daichi were out of sight before abruptly grasping the merchant's son's shoulder, halting him.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?!" she hissed out.

"It's a shortcut to the complex," Daichi replied, his eyes still flitting around. "I want to get home as soon as possible!"

Kyomi hesitated, then nodded. She really wasn't comfortable with going down an empty alley where they could easily be ambushed, but she had to agree that it'd be best to get to Daichi's father's complex as soon as possible. It was the lesser of two evils, really. With a sigh, Kyomi let her hand fall from Daichi's shoulder and the two continued onward.

As they walked, Kyomi studied the alley around them. It actually wasn't too small--five or six people could walk abreast down it--but the buildings of either side towered down over it, causing even a shinobi to feel as though they were about to be crushed by the ruble. Kyomi found herself practically stalking down the alley, every muscle in her body tense and her nerves quivering with anticipation.

Unfortunately for her, Kyomi's actions only made Daichi even more nervous, which thus annoyed her even further. Before long Kyomi was fuming and killing random weeds and plants with her glares. Meanwhile Daichi had become incredibly jumping, flinching at every sound, including his own footsteps.

It was because of this that both Daichi and Kyomi--despite the fact that she was an ANBU--nearly had heart attacks upon abruptly hearing a voice echoing around them. And to Kyomi's further shock, it was a very familiar voice.

"Well, well, well, if this isn't a surprise."

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**Preview of Chapter 12: The Kunoichi**

_Behind Kyomi, Daichi was whimpering. Sparing a quick glance back at him, Kyomi found him huddled up again the wall, looking like he was about to wet his pants--or maybe already had. He was in a patch of bright sunlight due to the angle of the sun and Kyomi was tempted to tell him to move into the shadows, but at the last moment decided against it. It would be easier for her to protect him if she could easily see him._

_Kyomi turned her attention back onto the other, shadowed, side of the alleyway just in time to see something shift. Quickly, she pulled out a pair of kunai that were hidden in the folds of her kimono and moved down in a half-crouch so that she was resting on the balls of her feet. In this position, she could easily move in any direction when the shinobi--for that's whom she was pretty sure that it was--appeared._


	13. Chapter 12: The Kunoichi

A/N: And thus the long awaited chapter arrives! Or at least partially does...You'll see what I mean (**grins**) Oh, and just to let you all know, I'll be changing my penname sometime this week (probably). Well, please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Kuro means black in Japanese.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 12  
_The Kunoichi_

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As Naruto trotted down the road alongside his team he attempted to keep an eye on the forest around him. It didn't work. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he constantly found his mind drifting back to the events that had occurred earlier that day. It stood out stark in his mind, though fortunately his emotions had calmed down a bit since his talk with Kyomi.

Naruto held back a sigh and wiped off his face. He knew that there wasn't really anything there--he must have wiped it a couple dozen times that day already--but it _felt_ like there was. He could still feel the blood that had been splattered on his face. He could still feel it running down his face like some twisted parody of tears, crying without sympathy for those whom would never rise again. And no amount of rubbing would remove _that_ blood.

Abruptly, Naruto became aware of the fact that Kakashi was walking beside him. The group was no longer in formation--there was no need now since Daichi had been safely delivered to Hajime--but last Naruto remembered, Kakashi had been up in the front of the group, while Naruto himself was taking up the rear. Had he really been so out of it that he hadn't even noticed his sensei dropping back so far?

Despite knowing that Naruto had acknowledged his presence, Kakashi still didn't say anything to the blonde. Instead the two just walked along side by side, Naruto taking comfort in the simple knowledge that his sensei was there.

Meanwhile, up ahead, Sakura and Sasuke too were wrestling with their own inner demons. Despite having been Genin for several years, they, like Naruto, had never actually killed before. Even that day however, Sakura had been lucky enough to not have had to kill. She'd still be introduced to death though, which had been more than enough.

Sakura chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes staring unfocusedly ahead. At the moment her mind was running around in circles and her emotions were going through a roller coaster ride. She really just didn't know what to think.

When she'd signed up to become a kunoichi, Sakura had known that she'd have to kill someday--it was a part of the job description. But knowing something and actually seeing it happen, _seeing_ her teammates brutally kill other people, were two completely different things. Sakura honestly wasn't sure if she'd be able to go through with killing someone when the situation came upon her.

Suddenly Sakura's thought turned to what had occurred after the battle--if you could even call it that--had been over, and how she'd quickly set upon healing everyone. Well, everyone except for Naruto, who didn't seem to have a scratch on him. She could have sworn that some of the blood had been his, but...

Sakura suddenly realized that that situation--healing her teammates after a battle--was why she'd followed to path that she had. She was a healer, apprenticed to the great Tsunade, because she'd much rather give life than take it away. Sakura felt her back straightening as she gained a sudden strength from realizing what her purpose as a kunoichi was. Then she had to smile lightly. Naruto would probably be shouting for joy if he knew that she was thinking about following "her own ninja path".

Sakura suddenly faltered. The old Naruto probably would have been shouting for joy, she realized, but she wasn't sure what this new, silent Naruto would do.

Sakura glanced back at the blonde just in time to see him wipe his face. As the pink haired Genin turned back toward the path before them, she frowned. She had already seen Naruto doing that several times, and couldn't understand why he was. There was nothing on his face, but just kept on rubbing at it, as if trying to get something off. Perhaps she'd ask Tsunade about his behavior when they got back to Konoha.

As Sakura looked forward, her other teammate, Sasuke, caught her eye and she immediately felt worry override all of her rationality.

'_Poor Sasuke-kun!_' she thought as she held her hand up before her. '_He had to __kill__ today!_' From there her thoughts degenerated into mindless chatter. '_I can cheer him up,_' Sakura suddenly thought. '_Then he'll finally get over his shyness and admit his love for me!_'

Meanwhile, Sasuke was brooding, blissfully unaware of his female teammate's daydreams. He had sunk into dark thoughts; his mind conflicted over the recent events. Sasuke was no stranger to death, certainly, but he had never actually _killed_ before. A shiver ran down his spine at the very thought.

Now more than ever he couldn't understand how his older brother had been able to murder his entire clan. Killing a stranger in self defense was one thing, but to kill your _family_, your _parents_...

"Alright everyone," Kakashi suddenly said, causing almost everyone to jump. They turned there attention onto him, his own students in particular feeling half annoyed, half relieved for the interruption. "We've been walking for long enough. Let's pick up speed."

And with that the eight shinobi took to the trees and easily disappeared from sight.

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_"Well, well, well, if this isn't a surprise."_

At the sound of the voice Kyomi tensed and whirled around, attempting to remember where she'd heard that voice before. It was tickling in the back of her mind, but she just couldn't remember...

At the same time, Kyomi was cursing herself. Why the hell hadn't she heard the person approaching?! She'd been on high alert, completely focused on her surroundings!

Kyomi's eyes searched the alley around her, but to her shock she found that she couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. She _knew_ that someone was out there, but to all of her senses the alley was empty except for her and her client.

Behind Kyomi, Daichi was whimpering. Sparing a quick glance back at him, Kyomi found him huddled up again the wall, looking like he was about to wet his pants--or maybe already had. He was in a patch of bright sunlight due to the angle of the sun and Kyomi was tempted to tell him to move into the shadows, but at the last moment decided against it. It would be easier for her to protect him if she could easily see him.

Kyomi turned her attention back onto the other, shadowed, side of the alleyway just in time to see something shift. Quickly, she pulled out a pair of kunai that were hidden in the folds of her kimono and moved down in a half-crouch so that she was resting on the balls of her feet. In this position, she could easily move in any direction when the shinobi--for that's whom she was pretty sure that it was--appeared.

As if replying to her thoughts, the shadows across the alley suddenly shifted once more. This time however, a figure stepped forward, out of the shadows themselves, revealing themselves.

Kyomi's eyes rested on the pure obsidian black mask covering the figure's face and immediately recognized the person to be the kunoichi that she'd run into just a month ago. The long, braided black hair trailing down her back and the black handled scythe in her hands only reinforced the girl's identity.

Kyomi's hand tightened around the handles of the kunai as she watched the kunoichi take a couple of steps forward. She was waiting for the dark haired kunoichi to attack, but the girl didn't seem inclined to do so just yet if her body language read true.

"Definitely a surprise," the kunoichi murmured. Her tone said that she was smirking even if her face could not be seen. "I didn't expect to see you again."

Kyomi's eyes narrowed and her mind began racing a mile a minute. How the heck did the kunoichi recognize her?! Kyomi was well adapted to using disguises, and not even the Genin whom she'd met before had recognized her. Hell, not even Naruto had really known that it was her until she talked to him. On top of that, Kyomi had been wearing her ANBU mask when she'd met the kunoichi, so there was no possible way for her to recognize her face. So then how the heck did she know who she was?!

"Well then," the kunoichi continued, "Let's make this easy--unlike last time. Just hand over Kurosaki Daichi and there'll be no problems."

Kyomi felt her eye start to twitch. "Like hell I will," she snapped.

The kunoichi chuckled again. "I figured that you'd be stubborn about this."

Kyomi forced down the growl that was surfacing in her throat. "Well I obviously will be. I'm not just going to stand by and let you murder an innocent person!"

The kunoichi let out a bark of a laugh. "Innocent?! I'd hardly call _him_ innocent. And what's this about killing him?"

Kyomi paused to stare at the shadow kunoichi in confusion. What? She wasn't here to kill Daichi? Then why the heck _was_ she here?!

Before Kyomi could voice her questions however, and understanding spark came into the black haired kunoichi's eyes. "Ah," she said, her eyes sliding over to Daichi for a moment. "Is that what he told you? That I was here to kill him? Let me guess, he also fed you some bullshit about how assassins were after him because his father's a rich merchant?" She paused to chuckle once more. "No, I'm afraid that his actions were solely his own. We have no intention of killing him...yet."

Kyomi's mind was racing. It seemed that there was a whole lot more to this situation than there'd originally appeared. She wanted to think that the kunoichi was just trying to trick her, but she could tell from Daichi's renewed whimpering that it was the truth. Suddenly however, the kunoichi last sentence caught in Kyomi's mind. The girl had said "we". Not "I" or "my employer", but "we". What did this mean? From what she had said earlier Daichi had done something to make this "we" mad at him. Something that was bad enough for him to lie to the Hokage about it. But what?

Kyomi focused all of her attention back on the kunoichi, only to find that the dark haired girl was looking at Daichi, who was shaking like a leaf and looked as pale as a geisha.

Kyomi turned back to her opponent, a question on her lips. "Was it you whom sent out those bandits?"

The kunoichi smirked, her sapphire eyes dancing with mirth. "No, I didn't send them out personally," she replied.

Kyomi narrowed her eyes. She understood what he shadow kunoichi was saying: _she_ hadn't sent out the men, but whoever she was working with--or for, she couldn't rule that out yet--had.

"But enough of that," the shadow kunoichi said suddenly, gripping her scythe tighter. "Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today so let us begin."

In a flash, the girl moved forward, her black handled scythe slashing through the air. Kyomi quickly rolled out of the way and then deflected a second attack with her two kunai, cursing the gods that she hadn't been able to bring her ANBU-issue katana with her due to the mission parameters. And now those parameters didn't even matter anyway because the kunoichi had recognized her. Kyomi _still_ had no idea how the dark haired girl had managed that.

As Kyomi moved forward toward her opponent she quickly fell into a rhythm of a fight. This battle, however, was quite a bit different than the one that she'd fought with the kunoichi before. This time around the girl was using a lot more force and was incorporating her shadows into almost every move.

To Kyomi's increasing anger, she quickly found herself being pushed back and outmaneuvered. And she didn't even know whether or not the other girl was even a kunoichi for Kami's sake! Sure, she had the skills of a shinobi, but she also had yet to use a single jutsu--well except for her shadows, but for some reason Kyomi didn't think that that was a jutsu. Granted, Kyomi herself was also being careful in the jutsu department, but that was half because she didn't want to risk injuring Daichi, even if he had lied, and half because she didn't want to damage the buildings around them.

The worst part of the fight, however, was that the shadow kunoichi almost seemed to be just playing around with her.

Putting on a burst of speed Kyomi slashed at the kunoichi and then moved away. Without waiting for her to recover from the blow Kyomi quickly ran though a series of handseals, bit her thumb to make herself bleed, and then slammed her hands onto the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A burst of smoke later, a large pure black wolf was standing in front of Kyomi, his gleaming golden eyes piercing through the darkness. He was massive, standing as high as Kyomi's waist, and currently he was growling menacingly at the dark haired kunoichi before him.

This was Kuro**(1)**, a summon which Kyomi had never shown to Naruto during their training. After all, Kyomi just wanted the dogs she summoned to track the boy, not kill him. And unlike Paa-kun, Kakashi's favored summon, this half-wolf, half-dog, Kyomi's personal favorite, was trained solely for attacking instead of tracking.

As they had fought together so many times before, Kuro didn't wait for Kyomi's commands. Rather, he just leapt forward, his teeth bared. Directly after him Kyomi moved as well, also attacking the other girl.

Now that she had two opponents, the shadow kunoichi was a bit more hard pressed. Kuro managed to quickly learn how to avoid her shadows and stay in the light for as long as possible. Kyomi, meanwhile, kept the kunoichi's attention off Kuro as much as she could by attacking furiously, adding a couple of low-level jutsu into the mix simply as a distraction.

After several minutes the shadow kunoichi moved backwards a bit, brining her shadows up to protect herself. Kyomi dashed forward, attempting to get around the kunoichi's guard, but before she could the dark haired girl's scythe suddenly flashed forward from within the shadows.

Kyomi cursed, knowing that she should have expected something like that, even as she ducked out the way and leapt backwards to avoid certain death, but not before receiving a deep gash on her left arm.

Kyomi snarled lightly, brining up her other hand and pressing it to the wound tightly. At the same time Kuro dashed forward and, using the shadow kunoichi's distracted triumph to his advantage, and managed to sink his teeth into the girl's lower calf. The kunoichi quickly used her shadows to shove Kuro away, sending him flying into a wall, but the damage had already been done and how the kunoichi had a noticeable limp.

Kyomi grinned ferociously, glad that the fight was beginning to turn in her favor. She swiftly pulled out a handful of shuriken and tossed them with unerring accuracy at the shadow kunoichi. They were all blocked, but Kyomi knew no more than that as her vision was suddenly filled with a sea of black with red clouds. Above that was face with a pair of crimson eyes containing three spinning black tomoe.

_Itachi_.


	14. Chapter 13: The Imouto

A/N: Yes, I have finally gotten around to changing my name, as I said I would. Oh, and just to warn everyone, updates will probably be coming a little less regularly now as this is one of the last pre-written chapters that I have done; I think I have to more. I'm going to have to really get onto writing some more of this story, especially since we're about half to three quarters done with it at this point.

As for the reason for my lateness with this chapter? There's a new Naruto-centric story that I've started working on. And I'm _loving_ how it's turning out. Speaking of which, I'm actually look for a beta reader for that story (and for my story Shards of Time, but that's a different topic altogether...) For more information, see the A/N chapter following this one.

Please read, _review_, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - "_Nami no Kuni_" means "Land of Waves".

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 13  
_The Imouto_

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_Itachi._

Kyomi instantly felt herself completely freeze up. She could swear that for several moments her heart even stopped beating. Slowly her face formed itself into an expression of shock and her breathing began to come in quick, short bursts.

Itachi was standing facing the shadow kunoichi. Though his back was facing Kyomi, his head was turned to stare at her, his sharingan eyes piercing through her.

"I-Itachi..." Kyomi breathed out in shock.

Itachi's eyes narrowed marginally for a moment before his face relaxed slightly, apparently recognizing her. It took Kyomi a moment to remember that she must look very different dressed up as she was.

Slowly, a small, dark smirk crept up onto Itachi's face. "Kyomi-chan," he murmured, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly. His eyes trailed down to Kyomi's wounded arm, which was bleeding freely. "You should get that taken care of."

"Itachi--" the shadow kunoichi suddenly interrupted. Itachi simply threw her a look however and she quickly shut her mouth with an audible click.

Kuro, who was still in the process of getting up from where he'd been thrown, began to growl but quickly stopped as he stared at Itachi. He looked torn, as if he didn't know whether to attack or not. His nose and memory was telling him that the man was an ally, but his mind was telling him that he was an enemy. Before the half-wolf could come to a decision however, Itachi abruptly threw a couple shuriken his way with a barely noticeably flick of his wrist. The surprised summon disappeared in a small poof of smoke.

Itachi then moved his gaze onto Daichi ignoring the shell-shocked Kyomi completely. Daichi was looking like he was about to have a heart attack or was already in the middle of one. His face was so pale that it was doubtful that there was any blood left in it at all and he was shaking badly.

Itachi just let his gaze rest on Daichi for a moment to study the man. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he spoke.

"You...we no longer need to deal with." Itachi paused to glance at the shadow kunoichi. "We have more important things to take care of."

Itachi flicked his wrist once so quickly that before Kyomi was even able to register the movement a scream erupted from Daichi. Half way through however, it turned into more of a gurgle. Kyomi quickly spun around to find a kunai buried deep within the man's throat. Daichi reached up to grab the kunai, but his strength failed half way through and his arms fell back down, the life fading from his eyes.

Hearing a shift of clothing behind her, Kyomi quickly turned around again. Itachi had turned back around to face the dark haired kunoichi and had grabbed onto her arm. Seeing that they were obviously about to leave, Kyomi quickly took a stumbling step forward, her eyes wide.

"Wait!" she called out, but it was already too late. She was alone in the alley with Daichi's bleeding body. Kyomi hesitated for a moment. She desperately wanted to chase after Itachi but knew that she couldn't; reporting back to the Hokage was more important at the moment.

Unbidden furious anger rose up in Kyomi and a snarl rose to her face and she quickly spun around to punch the wall behind her in frustration with all the force she could muster. The sudden pain in her fist reminded Kyomi of her injured arm. Kyomi glared down at it for a moment but then ripped off her already half cut off kimono sleeve and used it to bandage her arm to stem the blood flow.

Kyomi then proceeded to take a kunai and use it to cut off the bottom her kimono so that it only reached her mid-thigh. She'd be able to run much earlier this way.

Kyomi paused to survey the alley around her, which was currently littered with blood and shinobi weapons. She knew the procedure; she had to clean up after herself to leave no evidence behind. And she had to do it fast because _someone_ must have heard the sounds of fighting.

A minute later there were no weapons left or signs of a fight having taken place. All that Kyomi had left was Daichi's body--with any luck, the police might even think that it had just been a simple robbery.

Kyomi didn't spare Daichi another glance. Instead, she leapt away and began to race across the rooftops of the city faster than she probably ever had before.

This whole situation was bad. _Really_ bad. The shadow kunoichi was a part of the Akatsuki? Or at least worked with them...And Daichi had helped them? How? Why? And what about that katana that Kyomi had been guarding when she'd first met the shadow kunoichi? Why had they been after that?

And then there was Itachi...Kyomi's frown deepened. She hadn't seen him since he'd left Konoha over eight years ago. He was almost exactly the same as she remembered, only older, which really sent her for a loop. Even his voice was almost exactly the same. Deep...smooth...

Kyomi quickly jerked herself out of her thoughts before they could go any further. _No_. Itachi was the _enemy_ now. He had massacred almost his entire clan and had deserted their village.

Kyomi's expression turned into that of a scowl as she began to race toward Konohagakure no Sato.

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Only a half an hour later Kyomi noticed a group of people a bit a ways ahead of her through the foliage of the trees she was currently leaping through. She slowed down a bit, but then relaxed when she saw that it was just the two Genin teams that she'd left earlier. Kyomi dashed past them and dropped down from the trees to land before the group.

Still jumpy from their earlier battle, several of the Genin immediately threw some kunai and shuriken at Kyomi without waiting to see who she was. Kyomi admired their reflexes, but didn't have time for the young shinobi at the moment and so simply deflected the weapons away.

"Haruka-san?" Neji asked with a frown after a moment's pause.

Naruto was frowning as well, though for a very different reason. "Kyomi-sensei?"

Around him the other Genin turned to him, surprised. Gai looked as though he wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not.

"Kyomi," Kakashi put in, causing the attention to shift onto him. "What's happened?"

Kyomi paused, thinking of how to word her next sentence since there were Genin present. "Something...came up," she finally said. "I'm heading back to Konohagakure now."

Though he was wearing a mask over the lower part of his face, Kyomi could tell from years of experience that Kakashi was frowning.

"Is there a problem?" The older shinobi asked. Kyomi knew instantly what he really meant: Was there any immediate danger to them?

Kyomi paused once again, considering the question. "...Possibly..."

Kakashi nodded in reply and his face set into a very serious expression. He knew very well that Kyomi would not have broken out of cover unless something serious had happened.

As Kyomi turned to leave the group she turned her attention onto Naruto.

"Hige-kun," she said seriously. "As soon as you get back meet me at Training Ground #21."

And with that, she was gone.

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Kyomi strode quickly through the Hokage tower, ignoring all of the people around her. It was already around noon, meaning that it had taken almost 24 hours for her to return to Konohagakure no Sato. It was amazing how much quicker it was to travel when you were alone. At the moment however, Kyomi's mind was far from her return trip to Konoha. Rather, it was focused solely on what her upcoming report to the Godaime Hokage was going to be.

In mere moments Kyomi had reached the Hokage's office. She swept past the receptionist, ignoring the woman's cry of protest, and slipped into the room without bothering to knock.

Tsunade looked up sharply upon hearing her door open. She was currently in the middle of a meeting with a Chuunin. Upon seeing Kyomi in her doorway however, she quickly dismissed the shinobi and beckoned the ANBU to come forward. Kyomi did so without hesitation and moved to stand formally before her superior.

"What happened?" Tsunade quickly asked. She, like any other high-ranking shinobi, knew that no ANBU would return so quickly from a mission with something serious having happened. That and the serious look on the silver haired kunoichi's face also gave her away.

"Kurosaki-san lied about what was happening, Hokage-sama," Kyomi said solemnly. "In reality his situation actually involved the Akatsuki Organization." Kyomi paused. "...I was intercepted at one point by Uchiha Itachi."

Even as the words left Kyomi's mouth Tsunade began to frown ferociously. Upon hearing of Itachi however, her eyes widened and then narrowed dangerously.

"Tell me everything," she commanded.

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It was almost another hour before Kyomi finally left the Hokage's office. By then she had explained the entire situation in detail and had then had to submit to Tsunade's intense interrogation questions. In the end Tsunade had even called to meeting all of the ANBU commanders and had her repeat what had happened to them.

The investigation on Akatsuki had intensified and Kyomi was going to be right in the middle of it, helping out despite the job that she already had—teaching Naruto.

Speaking of which, the Godaime had also given Kyomi a new long-term indefinite mission: to protect Naruto. It wasn't like she wouldn't do that anyway, but now she was like his official body guard. With the Akatsuki's increased activities Kyomi was quite sure that it was needed. At one point Tsunade had even suggested that Kyomi move into Naruto's apartment or Naruto into hers, but they both agreed that that wasn't quite needed yet.

Now Kyomi was strolling quickly through the streets. She wanted to go speak with Kenmaru in his weapon shop. She wasn't going to tell him anything about the Akatsuki of course, but rather just that they might need to step up on the blonde's training a bit. By the Chuunin exams Kyomi wanted Naruto to be ready for _anything_ that was thrown his way.

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Meanwhile, back with the Genin teams, everyone was staring at Naruto.

"Kyomi--" Sakura started incredulously.

"--sensei?" Sasuke finished, wearing a similar expression.

Sakura continued to eye Naruto curiously. "Wait, Kyomi? Wasn't she Kakashi-sensei's sister?"

As Naruto nodded uncomfortable in reply Sasuke watched him through narrowed eyes. "Explain," he demanded.

Naruto rolled his eyes but quickly shoved down the spike of anger that rose within him in response to the Uchiha's attitude. "I'm Kyomi-sensei's apprentice," he replied with a shrug. "She's my official instructor now."

Neji's brow furrowed. "Hmm...Kyomi?" he mused. He too was eyeing Naruto with interest. "Wasn't she that ANBU that we fought against a month or so ago...?"

Tenten blinked in surprise. "I think that she might be, but she looks so different..."

"She was undercover," Naruto explained. After a moment's pause he turned to Kakashi. "What was she doing?" he asked the Jounin. "What was this whole mission about?"

Kakashi smiled brightly at the blonde. "Sorry, Naruto-kun, but that's classified information." Without another word he hid his face behind his little orange book and continued reading.

"That's--" Sakura began, but then abruptly cut herself off. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed angrily. "How come you never told us about this?!"

Naruto simply raised an eyebrow. "Did you honestly never question where I went everyday after I finished missions? Or why we never train as a team anymore?" At Sakura's bewildered expression, he let out a sigh.

As they continued walking, both Sasuke and Sakura lapsed into silence, thinking. Sasuke had a scowl on his face while Sakura merely looked thoughtful. Naruto went quiet as well, though he spoke with Gai's team occasionally.

Time seemed to fly by and eventually a day and a half had passed and the two teams were walking through the gates and into Konohagakure. Kakashi and Gai left almost immediately, heading toward the Hokage Tower to write up their reports. Without saying a word to any of the other Genin, Naruto was already gone, making his way across the rooftops toward the training grounds. He was eager to get back to training with Kyomi.

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Naruto was exhausted. That was the only thought running through his mind. It had been another week since the mission to Hajime and since then his training with both Kyomi and Kenmaru had increased exponentially, though previously he hadn't thought that to be possible. They were both pushing him as hard as they could and it seemed as though his every waking moment was filled with some sort of training.

Currently he was entering a training ground for his daily session with Kyomi. His eyes were shifting around as he walked. He expected to have to find Kyomi like he always did--he was still going through tracking training, although his skills in that area were much higher than they'd been even a month ago--but to his surprise he found Kyomi standing in the middle of the training ground, waiting. Confused but wary, he approached. His wariness increased at the sight of Kyomi's almost feral grin.

"Hige-kun!" Kyomi chirped in greeting. "I've got a surprise for you!"

Naruto eyed her warily for a moment. "Uh-huh..."

Kyomi quickly waved him off, laughing. "Oh, don't worry," she said. "You'll like this." She pause for dramatic effect, then, "We're going on a B-class mission!"

"Mission...?" Naruto echoed in surprise.

"Well, you'll be doing the mission and I'll be supervising," Kyomi amended. When Naruto just continued to stare at her, she expounded upon her statement. "I managed to get permission from Godaime-sama to take you on missions. Training is great and all, but it's no substitute for field experience."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully, excitement starting to build within him. He was going to get to go on missions with Kyomi!

"Do I need to pack anything?" he asked.

"Nope. The mission isn't too far away; we should be back by this evening."

Kyomi pulled a scroll out and tossed it to the blonde Genin. "Those are the mission details," she said. "Read it, memorize it, and then burn it. Also know that I _won't_ be helping you with the mission; I'm just there to make sure that things don't go too wrong." She grinned toothily at him.

Suppressing his own grin, Naruto opened the scroll and began to read. The mission objective, it seemed, was a simple retrieval. There was an old scroll that had been stolen and Naruto's job was to sneak into the building that it was being kept in, get the scroll, and then get out undetected. In total, it meant that Naruto was going to have to use a lot of the stealth skills that Kyomi had taught him. Real life application indeed.

"Kyomi-sensei..." Naruto said after a moment's pause. "Should there be more details in this? Like how and why the scroll was stolen in the first place?"

Kyomi shook her head. "Our job as shinobi is to complete our missions. It does not, _cannot_, matter how or why the situation came to be in the first place," she stated firmly. "It's the job of the ANBU to make sure that there are no extra complications or situations."

That was a part of the reason why she was so frustrated about what had happened in Hajime with that shadow kunoichi and Itachi. Being an ANBU herself, she knew well enough that no one in the ANBU had had any idea that Daichi had been lying. That whole mission had been the perfect example of a lack of intelligence on the man.

As soon as Naruto had destroyed the mission scroll he and Kyomi headed out of Konohagakure no Sato, pausing only briefly at the gates. Kyomi only told him that it would take about two hours to reach the town that was their destination and then faded into the background, leaving Naruto to navigate on his own. Naruto was infinitely grateful that Kyomi had taught him much about geography and how to read maps, otherwise he would have quickly gotten lost.

True to Kyomi's word it took just over two hours for Naruto to reach the village. The travel there had been a bit strange because even though he'd known that Kyomi was there, it'd felt as though he was alone. Was this really what it was like to go on solo missions?

Once in the village, Naruto used his skills as a shinobi to make his way over to the walled castle-like structure, up the walls, and into the building itself. It was fairly difficult as it was high noon, but he was an experienced shinobi, so he managed it. Kyomi trailed along behind him the entire time, just out of sight.

As soon as he was within the building Naruto preformed the **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) so that he wouldn't be seen from then on. He trusted his skills to keep himself from making noise for now.

Because he didn't know where the scroll was being kept Naruto had to search the building. He passed many guards along the way, but managed to avoid notice. Finally, after nearly a half an hour Naruto came upon a room containing many scrolls. He scowled briefly in annoyance but was also glad that the mission scroll had contained a description of the stolen scroll. It was supposed to be large and old with red trimming.

Letting out a sigh Naruto began to quickly sort through the scrolls while being careful not to make much noise. Fortunately it only took a minute before he came across a scroll matching the description that he'd been given. Naruto grinned triumphantly and then tucked the scroll away. He was just turning to leave when the door suddenly slid open and a guard stepped inside.

Naruto froze completely, cursing within his mind. Thinking quickly he activated his **Muon no Jutsu** (_Soundless Technique_) and leapt toward the wall, which he then clung to with his chakra. He waited completely still there for a minute, grimacing as he felt the strain on his control. He could manage to hold up **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) for a while, but holding up two jutsu at the same time was _much_ more difficult.

The guard poked around the room for a bit while Naruto watched from his vantage point. Finally, the man appeared to be satisfied that everything was as it should be and left.

Naruto let out a relieved breath of air but waited for another minute anyway before finally detaching himself from the wall. He released the **Muon no Jutsu** (_Soundless Technique_) and then made his way out of the room. From there it took Naruto only a couple of minutes to get out of the building and to the edge of the village. He laughed as he released the **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_), glad to have successfully completed the mission without a hitch.

Kyomi chuckled as well as she came into view. Though the mission had been very easy, Naruto had done very well and hadn't been caught. It'd been almost amusing to watch him work.

"Good job, Hige-kun," Kyomi murmured while affectionately ruffling his hair. For once Naruto didn't shy away from her hand and instead just grinned up at her.

Even as Kyomi congratulated Naruto she couldn't help but let her smile turn a bit sad. Though it'd been quite a while since the incident with the bandit attack Naruto's hair was still tinted red and Kyomi knew that it was now permanent. Normally blood would wash out of course, but as far as Kyomi could tell the blood had reacted strangely with the chakra that he'd been wrapped in at the time because of the **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_), and so had stained his blonde hair instead. It was fortunate that the villagers hadn't noticed yet, though that was most likely because Naruto was almost never around the village proper anymore.

Naruto's axe too was still stained--most likely for the same reason--but Kyomi thought that that at least might be a good thing. After all, it added an intimidation factor to the already impressive weapon.

"Come," Kyomi said as she pushed her contemplations away. "We need to get back to the village. One thing that you should always remember is to return to Konohagakure no Sato punctually, especially if something important or odd happened during your mission. Often the difference between a mission being completely and a shinobi dying is the amount of information that they have before hand.

"_So_, even if you think that something isn't important, it could be to your superiors. For them it could be a puzzle piece that completes a large picture that will decide whether or not they'll send someone on a mission or if they'll up the rating of the mission instead."

Naruto's brow furrowed. "Huh? But...I don't..."

Kyomi sighed. "Alright. You remember that mission that you went on two years ago in Nami no Kuni**(1)**, right?"

Naruto was momentarily surprised that Kyomi even knew of the mission, but quickly nodded without asking questions. He definitely remembered the mission. Not only had it been his first C-class mission (Well, technically A-class, he reminded himself.), but it had also been the first time that he'd really been introduced to death and the harshness of the shinobi world.

"Well," Kyomi continued, "Let's say that there was a Chuunin who went on a mission in that area just before you did. Now if he just reported on the basic details of his mission then things would have turned out just as they did. However, if he had instead had a complete report and expanded upon all of the information of the area that he'd encountered, then the Hokage would have known more about the situation in Nami no Kuni and would have known better than to send a new Genin team on such a mission. As such, many deaths could have been avoided."

Naruto's eyes widened as realization stuck him. He understood now what Kyomi had meant about writing full reports. Though he'd been glad to have been able to go on the mission in Nami no Kuni, if Haku and Zabuza's deaths could have been avoided he'd agree not to go in a heartbeat. Not to mention that Sasuke had nearly been killed too...

"If you never learn anything else from me," Kyomi stated seriously, "Then just know this: Knowledge used properly can be more dangerous than any weapon."

Immediately, Naruto began to nod. He understood what Kyomi was saying and, from past experiences, knew that it was probably quite true.

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It didn't take quite as long to return to Konohagakure no Sato as it had to reach their original destination, probably because Naruto was excited about having completed his mission. Kyomi disappeared again while they traveled, but joined up with Naruto once more when they came in view of the village gates.

"Next time," Kyomi said as they walked up to the Chuunin guards, "I won't show up during the mission at all. I'll still be there, but you'll have to complete the mission all by yourself, including your report to the Hokage." She then turned her attention to the Chuunin and flashed her and Naruto's identification--they needed to get Naruto's photo updated, she noted offhandedly.

From there the two headed towards the Hokage Tower. Because Naruto had never filled out a mission report before--Kakashi always did that--Kyomi directed him to where he needed to go and then explained to him what he needed to do. Kyomi would have to fill out a report as well later, but that was more an evaluation of Naruto than about the mission.

As Naruto turned in the report, the Chuunin sitting behind the desk in the room told him that his pay would be charged to his bank account. Naruto nodded awkwardly in reply. He knew that that was how they were paid of course, but dealing with the shinobi who worked in the administration was a new experience.

Kyomi grinned as she rested a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Come one," she said. "Let's go train."

Naruto groaned.


	15. Chapter 14: The Teammates

A/N: Only three reviews for the last chapter? _Seriously_? That means that only one in every 30-40 people are reviewing (**shakes head sadly**) Anyway, just as a warning this chapter is a little...darker...than usual. I hate what I'm putting Naruto through, but it's necessary for his character development. It's a relatively long chapter though, so hopefully that'll make up for it (**grins**) Please read, review,

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Iwa means rock. This means that he's a shinobi from Iwagakure, the Village Hidden in the Stone.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations!**

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 14  
_The Teammates_

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After Naruto's first "solo" mission his schedule picked up even more. He still trained with Kyomi and Kenmaru all the time, but now he often went on missions as well, occasionally even long term missions--though still no longer than a few days.

Kyomi always stayed hidden during this time. Watching but not interfering. Naruto had to decide on his own what to bring with him, perform the mission, and then go to the Hokage Tower to take care of the mission report. Only then, once he was done, would Kyomi show up. Generally they would then go over the mission and what Naruto could have done better.

During the few times when Kyomi had a mission and couldn't train him she had Naruto train with Gai's team. Even if their team was a bit strange Naruto found that it was a good experience. After all, it meant that he got to fight against a Taijutsu specialist, a weapon specialist, and a Byakuugan wielder. It was good practice and it was also nice for him to get to fight against people his own age again.

To Naruto's surprise, however, he also found that, especially when using Kage Bunshin, he was able to fight against two or three of them at the same time without too much difficulty. It seemed that his training was really paying off. Tenten had even asked him who had taught him how to wield his axe!

Despite all this Naruto still had to go on missions with his team everyday--well, at least when he wasn't on missions of his own. He found that he didn't mind it so much though; since the mission to Hajime their team dynamics had changed. Sasuke and Sakura watched him more carefully now and dealt with him differently as well. It was like they didn't quite know how to act around this different, quieter, Naruto.

Naruto had also begun to wear his black outfit around more often. His teammates never questioned it, but more than once Naruto had caught one or the other staring at him.

The situation wasn't quite awkward, but was certainly...strange.

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Naruto let out a sigh as he left Team 7's training grounds. Though, granted, the term "team" wasn't quite accurate as they never actually did any training together anymore. Even the amount of mission they did together had dropped so that they could spend time with their separated sensei.

Today they had had a couple of minor missions to do. After that they'd returned to training ground #7 and then split up.

Naruto wasn't quite sure what to do with himself today; both Kyomi and team Gai were currently away on missions. He supposed that he could go train on his own, but...

"Naruto?" The blonde heard from behind him. Blinking in surprise he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the speaker.

To Naruto's confusion it was Sakura who was approaching him from behind and wringing her hands nervously. Sasuke was trailing a few feet behind her with his hands shoved into his pocked and looking generally indifferent.

"Umm..." Sakura hesitated. "Would...would you like to go out for lunch? With us as a team, I mean," she hastily added. The dark haired boy didn't look up, but he did stop when Sakura did.

Naruto stared at his two teammates surprised. He hadn't expected them to approach him. The blonde haired Genin opened and closed his mouth a couple of times unsure as to how he should respond. Finally, a small smile curled at the edges of his lips.

"Sure," he replied, "Why not."

Sakura's shoulders slumped in relief and Sasuke looked up in surprise. '_Had they honestly expected me to say no?_' Naruto thought. '_I may have changed, but I haven't changed that much...Right?_'

"Ramen?" Sakura ventured.

Chuckling, Naruto nodded. "Ramen," he agreed.

It took the group only about ten minutes to reach the Ichiraku ramen stand. They were silent during the trip as none of them felt like starting a conversation. The air was tense and unsure. '_When had it become like this?_' Naruto thought sadly.

Upon reaching the small restaurant Naruto ducked inside with his teammates following him. "Hey, Old Man!" Naruto called out loudly, a wide grin stretching across his face.

The owner, Teuchi, chuckled at the greeting. "Naruto-kun," he greeted. "Back already? You were just here with Kyomi-chan a few days ago."

Sakura looked questioningly at Naruto. "You come here with Kyomi-san?"

Naruto nodded absently. "Yep. We usually come here after missions." Following his lead Sasuke and Sakura sat down on either side of him. Sasuke seemed to be studying him closely though Naruto attempted to ignore it and instead ordered his ramen.

"You go on solo missions with Kyomi-san as a watcher, right?" the Uchiha finally asked. At Naruto's nod he continued, "I do the same with Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto blinked in surprise at the almost random statement. '_Okaaay..._' he thought. Aloud, he said, "Um, that's...great?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the response. He didn't look angry or even disgruntled though. Rather, he looked as though he'd been expecting a different response and was now trying to figure out why Naruto hadn't reacted the way he'd thought he would. It was...odd.

"I don't get to go on higher level missions often," Sakura put in. She made a face. "I have to work at the hospital almost every day. Don't get me wrong, I love my work, but...Sometimes I wish that I could do more field medic-nin work."

Naruto couldn't help but grin. "Well, maybe we'll get to go on a high-class mission together as a team sometime, ne?"

Sakura stared at Naruto in surprise for a minute before abruptly breaking out in a wide smile. "That'd be nice," she said honestly.

Sasuke grunted, though a smirk flitted around the corners of his mouth. "I'd totally beat you, dob--...Naruto."

Naruto laughed with amusement dancing in his eyes. "You wish!" he joked back.

Before their conversation could go any further however, Teuchi came back and set their food before the team.

"Thanks, old man!" The blonde exclaimed happily.

"No problem, Hige-kun," Teuchi chuckled.

Naruto's face immediately fell. "Not you too!" he groaned, hanging his head. He'd hoped that even after hearing Kyomi use it so often the nickname wouldn't catch on, but it was not to be.

"Hige?" Sakura giggled.

"Yeah," Naruto said with a sigh. "It's a nickname that Kyomi-sensei came up with."

Sakura giggle once more. "Well, I think that it's cute," she said. "...Hige-kun."

Naruto scowled at her but she just continued to laugh and even Sasuke smirked widely. After several minutes, as they all continued to joke around, Naruto found himself starting to relax in a way that he hadn't been able to do around his team in years.

Perhaps...perhaps there was hope for them yet.

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After a half an hour Naruto noticed the time and suddenly cursed. He quickly shoved the last of his ramen into his mouth as he began to pull out his wallet to pay for the meal.

"Sorry guys," the blonde said as he swallowed his food, "But I've got to run!" He slammed down his money and not a moment later was out in the streets.

Naruto dashed across the rooftops of Konohagakure no Sato as quickly as he could. '_Shit!_' he swore in his mind. He'd lost track of time and now it was entirely possible that he'd be late for his training with Kenmaru. That old man was going to _kill_ him!

Faster than he'd expected, Naruto found himself outside the rundown front of Kenmaru's shop. He let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that he wasn't late and then straightened his clothing and stepped inside.

The shelves of the store were bare as usual, but all of Kenmaru's customers knew that the real products were kept in the back, hidden away from civilians' eyes.

As he entered Kenmaru looked up, grinning. "Right on time, Hige-kun," he greeted and Naruto let out a sigh. Was _everyone_ going to call him that now?

Without any further preamble the spry older man began to lead Naruto toward the door in the back of the shop. They passed through the dark hallway, through another hidden door, up a creaky narrow staircase, and into Kenmaru's private quarters.

The first room after the stairway was a large room with smooth but well-worn wooden floors. The room was almost completely empty except for the numerous weapons hanging on one wall. This was Kenmaru's sparring room where he and Naruto trained. Naruto had never been past the sparring room and into the area where Kenmaru lived, and he never expected to. He and Kenmaru had a different sort of relationship than he had with Kyomi.

"Come, boy," Kenmaru barked. He strode over to the weapon wall, pulled down two dulled axes, and then tossed of one them to Naruto. The blonde Genin caught it easily and hefted it up and getting a good grip on its handle.

Kenmaru didn't say another word before abruptly leaping at Naruto with his axe swinging through the air. Naruto quickly rolled out of the way, but Kenmaru twisted as he fell towards the floor aiming towards Naruto once more. Having no other choice the boy brought his axe up to block Kenmaru's attack.

As the two axe blades met they set a screech of grinding metal through the room. Naruto grunted under the exertion of holding Kenmaru back; the elder man had more strength than anyone his age had any right to...Except maybe for Tsunade, but she was insane, and not just strength-wise. After a moment however, Naruto managed to throw Kenmaru off him and then immediately slashed at the man. Kenmaru avoided the strike of course, and the battle began in earnest.

Naruto fought against Kenmaru for at least twenty minutes before the older man finally let him take a break. Any minor scratches that he'd collected during the fight had already healed leaving behind few traces of their existence.

"Damn, Kenmaru-sensei," Naruto grumbled as he plopped onto the ground against one wall. "You never go easy on me, do you? What if you accidentally cut off my arm or something?"

Kenmaru snorted. "If that happened then it'd be your fault for being too slow," he replied. Ignoring Naruto's indignant look he continued, "And knowing you, you'd probably just re-grow the arm anyway."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Your antipathy reminds me of Sasuke," he muttered.

"The Uchiha?" Kenmaru questioned. "Your teammate? You've never spoken much about your teammates before."

Naruto shrugged uncomfortably. "We...We're not all that close."

"Be careful of taking them for granted," Kenmaru murmured almost to himself. Surprised by the statement Naruto looked up only the find that Kenmaru was staring off into space as if lost in memories. Though his face remained impassive his eyes looked very sad. "Or one day they might suddenly be gone and there will be nothing that you can do about it. No time left to make up for past mistakes..."

Naruto frowned fiercely staring down at the wooden floor beneath him. Kenmaru's words had struck a chord in him. A world without Sasuke and Sakura? He couldn't imagine it. Even though he wasn't very close to them they and Kakashi had been some of the few constants in his life. Sasuke nearly defecting had been difficult enough, but for both of them to suddenly and permanently be gone...

"Well, come on, Hige-kun," Kenmaru suddenly exclaimed breaking Naruto from his reverie. The old man was grinning widely as all traces of sadness and regret were gone. Or perhaps just hidden. "There's something that I've been meaning to show you for a while."

Before Naruto could even open his mouth to reply Kenmaru had darted into his living quarters presumably to fetch something. The blonde let out a sigh and rested his head against the wall behind him with a thunk. Kenmaru's words about his teammates were still echoing through is mind no matter how hard he tried to push the thoughts away.

Within just a few minutes Kenmaru returned to the sparring room. In his hands were what appeared to be a block of wood and two stone bowls. Kenmaru set the items down in front of Naruto and then sat down himself on the other side of them.

Peering closer Naruto found that the block of wood--which was about a two feet by a two feet across and a foot tall--was in fact a game board. Black lines crisscrossed it, forming several hundred squares. The stone bowls, the blonde also saw, were filled with smooth polished stones. One bowl held all black while the other held all white.

"I'm going to teach you how to play Go," Kenmaru declared.

"Eh?! Go? Isn't that that old mens' game?"

Kenmaru scowled at the Genin and leaned over to whack him over the head. "It's not a game just for old men," he snapped. "It's a strategy game, and it's very good for shinobi especially. The game teaches you to look many steps ahead at what your opponent will do in the future. You have to predict how the game is going to turn out, and react accordingly. As a shinobi it is _very_ good to learn to do this in real life. If you can predict what your opponent will do...Well, it'll help quite a bit in any fight that you get into.

"You in particular need to learn how to read your opponent's moves. And this game is going to help you with that. Every time you come over here we're going to be spending some time with this game. Now to start off..."

As Kenmaru began to explain the rules of the game Naruto let out a sigh and moved into a kneeling position in front of the board. Oh well, at least he wasn't getting his ass kicked by Kenmaru's axe.

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

The next morning Naruto was awakened by a sharp knock on his front door. Grumbling under his breath, Naruto shuffled to the door while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He sensed no aggressive presence on the other side--damn, both of his sensei _were_ making him paranoid--so he unlatched the locks and opened the door.

To his surprise it was Kyomi standing on the other side. She smirked upon seeing Naruto's surprised expression and then strode inside and threw herself down onto the couch without waiting for an invitation.

"Good morning, Hige-kun," Kyomi chirped.

Naruto continued to blink in confusion as he let the door close. "Kyomi-sensei?" he questioned. "You're back?"

"Yep! And guess what?" She pulled out a scroll and tossed it to the blonde. "You have a mission."

Still in a stupor, Naruto stared down at the scroll in his hands. This was different; Kyomi always waited until their training sessions before giving him the mission. She'd never actually _delivered_ it to him before.

Finally, Naruto remembered that he needed to actually open the scroll and he quickly did so. His eyes scanned over the scroll's contents, but then he suddenly froze while in the middle of reading the mission details.

It was as assassination mission.

Naruto's eyes rose, seeking out Kyomi. She sat on the couch with half-lidded eyes and an otherwise unreadable expression, watching his reaction. Naruto had never had an assassination mission before. He knew it. She knew it. However, they also both knew that it was essential for him to get used to performing them if he was ever going to rise in the shinobi ranks.

Naruto looked back down at the scroll and continued reading. He would have to perform the mission. He was a shinobi after all and their business was death.

Kyomi didn't say anything else even as Naruto began to make breakfast and Naruto didn't expect her too. After having gone on so many "solo" missions, the Genin knew how things worked: After she'd given him the scroll, it was to be as if she'd left. Naruto would have to get ready on his own, leave the village, perform the mission, return, and write up his report. Only then would Kyomi appear and--almost always--take him out to eat and cover the mission on what he could have done better.

Unlike most Genin Naruto had no specific time by which to leave the village. He had to decide that on his own. However, both Kyomi and Kenmaru had pounded punctuality and swiftness into his head so Naruto quickly got ready and left his apartment.

As soon as he'd been out the door Kyomi had disappeared from view while trailing silently behind him. It was a testament to Naruto's ever-growing tracking skills however that he was able to sense flashes of her chakra every now and then. His senses really were getting much better.

Once he was out of the village Naruto immediately took to the trees. At the speed that he was capable to travel at Naruto knew that it would take a day and a half to reach the village that his target was in. This meant that he would probably be back in Konohagakure in four days.

It was mostly silent as Naruto traveled along. He came across no human life, though that was probably partially because he traveled alongside the road, rather than on it. After many house of boring travel--Naruto eventually found himself counting the number of deer he came across because he had nothing else to do. If nothing else solo missions had helped to increase his patience--the sun finally began to set.

As it grew dark Naruto spent some time searching for a good hidden spot to spend the night. Said spot ended up being a large old oak tree that would provide more than sufficient cover. Once he was set up for the night he ate his dinner--a ration bar--and then went to sleep. Had he been with other shinobi he would have set up watch for the night, but he was alone and that wasn't possible.

The next day progressed much the same as the first. Naruto was almost beginning to see why Kakashi always read that book of his; long term missions were insanely boring especially when you were by yourself. At the moment Naruto felt as though even _he_ would gladly read Kakashi's book.

By the time that Naruto arrived at the large bustling town that was his destination he was nervous. He was glad that he was there so that he could get the mission over with, but he also half wished that the trip had taken longer. He had to wait until it got dark to progress further anyway though, so...

Naruto took several deep breathes as he stood on the edge of town. He knew that he had to do this, and it wasn't as if it was his first kill, but that didn't make it any easier.

Quite suddenly Naruto leapt to the ground while shoving his thoughts away. Maybe if he just didn't think about his mission it wouldn't be so difficult. Naruto quickly put a Henge no jutsu (Transformation Technique) of a farmer around himself and then strode into town.

Naruto spent the day in the market district wandering around and listening to gossip. He quite quickly managed to locate the home of his target who was a fairly well-off merchant. The man wasn't cruel or evil, Naruto had found, but had just managed to piss of the right people. That simple idea sent shivers down the blonde's spine; he was killing someone solely because some random person with money wanted someone else dead.

When darkness fell Naruto found himself in an alley outside of his target's large home. Activating **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_)--which he was really beginning to be glad that he had been taught--the blonde began to scale up the side of the wall before him. After only a moment he reached the window, which was closed and latched. Fortunately, the room he was looking into was unoccupied so he would be able to get in without too many problems.

Working swiftly Naruto used **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **(_Shadow Clone Technique_) to create a clone beneath him and then used **Kawarimi no jutsu** (_Body_ _Replacement Technique_) to switch himself with a vase that was resting on the floor inside. The clone outside caught the vase, climbed up the wall of the house, and then handed it to Naruto as the boy opened the window. Naruto then put the vase back in its original place. The switching Jutsu made sure no one would be able to tell how he'd gotten inside. He did however leave the window unlocked--but closed--and the clone outside; they would be useful for a quick escape later.

Still under the **Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) Naruto quietly stalked out of the room and down the hall. Only one of the doors on the upper floor was lit with light so Naruto made his way towards that one; with any luck that was where his target was.

Naruto crouched outside the door and placed his ear to the wood in order to hear what was going on inside. He could have felt for chakra signatures, but that would cause his own signature to flare so he figured that it'd be best not to for now just in case.

Immediately, Naruto was able to discern several things: heavy breathing and slight mumbling--the sounds of someone who was asleep. Behind that however there was another sound; it was that of breathing as well, but light and quick.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. A second person? One who was awake and alert, and who had been trained to breath quietly. A shinobi, but not a Jounin or an ANBU; if it had been Naruto wouldn't have heard the breathing at all and his chakra signature would have already been detected. It couldn't be a Genin either because the breathing was _too_ quiet and they also almost always worked in teams--there was only this one guard here. That only left one rank: Chuunin.

So it was a Chuunin guard who'd been hired to protect his target. Damn, that made the situation just that much more difficult though Naruto thought that he'd be able to handle it. After all, this was a B-class mission which meant that he'd had to prepare for the possibility of encountering shinobi.

Naruto leaned back on his heels as he contemplated what to do next. He needed to take care of the Chuunin first and hopefully without waking his target. He also wanted to try not to wake the rest of the household; it'd be easiest if he could get in and out with as few people as possible noticing his presence. It was fortunate that he already had surprise on his side.

Naruto couldn't help but let out a sigh. He needed to do this without opening the door; that would not only take away his surprise, but also could make too much noise. You never could tell especially in these older houses.

There was only one way to go about this situation. The first part would leave him blind to the situation during the first few moments--the most crucial part--but with luck the element of surprise would balance that out.

The first thing that Naruto did was release the** Kakuremino no Jutsu** (_Cloak of Invisibility Technique_) and instead placed a Henge over himself so that he looked like a twenty-something year old guy with dark hair and eyes. He then created half a dozen Kage Bunshin on the other side of the door with instructions on what to do. The blonde didn't hesitated for even a moment before quickly following that with **Kawarimi no jutsu** (_Body_ _Replacement Technique_), switching places with one of the clones inside. He left it there outside the door as both a guard and as a means of escape for later.

Once inside the room, Naruto took a second to appraise the situation. The target--a middle aged man--was still asleep in his bed undisturbed. Meanwhile the Chuunin--who according to his hitai-ate was an Iwa-nin**(1)**--was being held down by his five clones one of which had his hand over the man's mouth preventing him from making a sound.

The shinobi struggled violently against his restraints however, and managed to dispel one of the clones. As it faded away in a poof of smoke Naruto had to stop a sudden grin from coming to his face; he had an idea.

Working quickly Naruto dispelled the four remaining clones, causing a screen of smoke to spread throughout the room. Using this to his advantage, Naruto slipped behind the Chuunin and placed a kunai to his throat.

When the shinobi froze in shock and fear, Naruto took the pause in movement to quickly remove the kunai and strike its base sharply against the man's temple, knocking him unconscious. Naruto then caught him as he crumpled and lowered him to the ground.

As he stepped away from the man's body Naruto let out a shaky sigh. He knew that most people would have killed the Chuunin instead of just knocking him out, but the blonde boy definitely didn't want to have to kill any more than was necessary. It was difficult enough that he would have to assassinate someone today, but the Chuunin hadn't even tried to kill him or anything. He'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to do his job. Naruto turned his attention onto his target whom was still sleeping heavily, and began to walk to the bed.

As the Genin stood over the man with a kunai in one hand he took a deep shaky breath. He was trembling--he knew--but he had every right to be. He couldn't believe that he was doing this, but...

He was a shinobi and unfortunately this was just a part of the job description.


	16. Chapter 15: The Past

A/N: ...Well, I got at least a couple more reviews for the last chapter, so thanks to those who did take the time to review. Normally I don't really care about how many reviews my stories get, but considering the number of people who have this on their story alert and the number of hits each chapter is getting, this is _really_ starting to get ridiculous. Even just a one-word review is fine people; just enough to acknowledge that you are reading this story.

Moving on.

I believe that you'll enjoy this chapter for two reasons. One is because you finally get to find out how Kyomi knows Itachi and a bit about her past. Two is because it's kind of like an entrance way to the main action of this story, namely the Chuunin Exam and the chapters where Itachi is fully present in the story. For a hint as to what I mean, go reread the end of the prologue (**grins**) Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

--Oh, and I just realized that Kakashi technically can't wink; if he does you really can't differentiate it from a blink. And yes, I do realize that that is a completely inane and obvious fact, but I just realized it nonetheless (**grins**)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

(1) - Iwagakure means "Hidden in the Stone" or "Hidden Stone". It's a shortcut for Iwagakure no Sato, "the Village Hidden in the Stone".

(2) - Neko means cat. This is her ANBU name and is a reference to her mask, though she's currently not wearing it.

**Thanks to my beta reader, BattleStations.**

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

Even After All These Years

Chapter 15  
_The Past_

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

As the sun began to rise, Kyomi stood in the middle of the forest outside the town. Her eyes were glued to the patch of burnt ground in front of her as the wind slowly blew the ashes away.

It had been almost a half an hour since Naruto had left the town, the kunoichi estimated. She'd watched over Naruto as he'd preformed his mission, difficult as it'd been to watch him in emotional pain, but had stayed behind while he'd left. Naruto may have wanted to avoid unnecessary casualties, but Kyomi had seen that Naruto had made one major mistake during the mission.

The blonde, Kyomi had seen, had been careful about hiding his identity as a Konoha-nin. This was good as Konohagakure and Iwagakure**(1)** were still on shaky terms, so even something as simply as a Konoha-nin upsetting their mission could cause their relationship to deteriorate even further.

The problem, however, was that the Chuunin had witnessed Naruto using **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu** (_Shadow Clone Technique_), a technique that was known to be known only by Konoha-nin, and only high-ranking ones at that. It would be very easy for Naruto to be identified as being from Konohagakure.

And thus it was left up to Kyomi to take care of the Chuunin. Though she'd speak with Naruto about this later, she didn't want to push him too hard right now.

The silver haired ANBU had easily gotten the Chuunin out of the house and into the woods, where she'd then destroyed his corpse with a well-placed fire jutsu. Because Naruto had done such a clean job of taking out the Chuunin, all evidence of the man's disappearance was now gone. With any luck it might even be a week or two before anyone from Iwagakure no Sato came to investigate the disappearance. And by then they really wouldn't be able to find anything. Kyomi let out a sigh and then suddenly vanished from the woods, already on her way to catch up with Naruto.

The ashes floated silently away on the wind.

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

Kyomi didn't appear before Naruto until he'd exited the Hokage tower after turning in his mission report. She'd been tempted to speak with him during the night that he'd spent in the wilderness, but had given him time to think instead.

When Kyomi fell into step with Naruto the blonde didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't even look at her but rather just kept his eyes glued to the ground beneath his feet. The Genin did, however, follow Kyomi when she began to lead him toward the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.

As Kyomi and Naruto took their seats in the small restaurant, they still didn't speak. Sensing the mood, Teuchi quickly served them and then disappeared from sight.

It took several minutes before Naruto finally spoke up. "Does it ever get any easer?" he asked.

Kyomi let out a sigh. "No," she admitted. "It's always just as difficult as the first time."

A shiver ran down Naruto's spine. "How-- how can you deal with it?" he croaked out. "How can you live with yourself, knowing...?"

"It'll always be difficult," Kyomi replied with another sigh, "But eventually you'll find ways to repress the way that you feel; ways to block it out. Kakashi-kun, for example, has those little perverted books of his. Gai, meanwhile, acts insane. I also happen to know that Sarutobi Asuma--I believe you know him--has a tendency to take his frustrations out on random trees using his brass knuckles, and on top of that is a chain smoker. All high level shinobi generally have some kind of quirk. Those that don't...Well, either they develop one or they don't last very long."

"What about you?" Naruto asked, curiosity coloring his voice and lifted his mood slightly. "What's your 'quirk'?"

For a long while Kyomi stayed silent. Naruto almost thought that she wasn't going to answer, when she finally spoke again.

"I...I sued to play pranks all the time. It was a way for me to laugh, and to get others to laugh as well. But then...Well, eventually I began to bury myself in my work. It sounds contradictory, but it helped because I didn't have to think much. I just..._did_. Whenever I'd come back my mind would start to think again, so I'd go out on another mission. Before long I was barely spending any time in Konohagakure no Sato at all."

Naruto frowned, contemplating Kyomi's words. Kyomi herself was just glad that he seemed to be coming out the funk that he'd been in, even if it was just due to his curiosity about her.

"I...I don't really know much about you, now that I think about it," the boy said after a moment. "For example, who was on your Genin team?"

Kyomi smiled sadly, staring off into space. "My teammates and best friends were Hyuuga Satoru and Uchiha Itachi," she told him. She ignored--or perhaps just didn't notice--the shocked expression on Naruto's face and continued on. "Itachi and I graduated from the academy at the same time and since we were both six years old at that time we were put on the same team. Though all three of us on that team became close, Itachi I were really drawn together because of our similar situations.

"It wasn't even a year later that our team passed the Chuunin Exam. Itachi and I still worked together often and we were still close. We remained so until Itachi was promoted to Jounin. It was at that point that we started seeing less and less of each other. We talked whenever we could, but we were both so busy...

"I didn't even know that Itachi had been given a position in the ANBU until right after I was promoted to Jounin when I was eleven. It...It was at that point that I realized that I barley knew Itachi anymore. We were still close, but he'd changed so much. He was so much colder, more emotionless. I could barely reconcile him with the boy I'd met in the academy years before.

"I-It was a complete shock for me to find out two years later that Itachi had massacred his clan. It was something that I'd _never_ suspected him of, not even with his change in personality. At first I was sure that there'd been some kind of a mistake, that he'd been framed or _something_. But..." She paused to take a deep breath. "When Sasuke woke up he told the Hokage about how Itachi had the Mangekyo Sharingan. Knowing my closeness to Itachi, Sandaime-sama immediately sought me out to ask me out this information. When I heard what Sasuke had said, I knew that it had been Itachi and not some imposter.

"You see, Itachi and I were two of the very few people who knew about the Mangekyo Sharingan. I never was supposed to of course, but there was an incident many years ago...I'd never thought that Itachi would go so far to obtain the Mangekyo, or even that he would go for it at all. He'd _seen_ what it could do to a person..."

As Naruto listened to Kyomi speak, he suddenly remembered something. "Two years ago, when I was at the Valley of the End, Sasuke spoke about his brother. He said...he said that Itachi had told him that there were currently two people who had the Mangekyo sharingan. Do you know that second person then?"

Kyomi smiled sadly. "Yes," she replied softly. Here eyes were unfocused once she got lost in her memories. Naruto was tempted to inquire further, but decided that now wasn't the time and instead let it drop. He had a lot to think over now anyway.

A small smile crossed Naruto's face as he finished his ramen. At least he now knew a whole lot more about his sensei.

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

When Kyomi finally returned to her apartment the sun was beginning to set. She let out a sigh and plopped down onto the couch to relax.

It was strange, when Kyomi really thought about it, that she was still living with her older brother, even after all these years. She'd lived with him her entire life as her mother had died in childbirth with her and her father had committed suicide only a year later.

Honestly, it didn't feel like she'd lived with Kakashi for that long. When she'd been little, Kakashi had always been away on missions or training, and then later, when she'd begun to rise through the ranks, _she'd_ always been away.

Kyomi gently trailed a finger along the armrest of the couch. She actually hadn't been around the apartment that much, despite the fact that she'd grown up there. It was more of a short resting spot between activities rather than an actual home.

As Kyomi glanced around however, she noticed that the house looked more lived in than ever. It'd started to become that way for the past few years, ever since Kakashi had retired from the ANBU. Now that he was a Jounin sensei he was in the village most of the time.

Hearing a sound coming from the kitchen, Kyomi turned her head in that direction. She wasn't alarmed however, as the sound was familiar. Kakashi was most likely in the kitchen, cooking.

A little known fact was that Kakashi was actually a very good cook. It came from having to take care of himself and a younger sibling from a young age. Over time however it'd developed into something of a hobby, though he almost never let anyone know.

Almost on queue, the silver haired shinobi popped his head out of the kitchen. A smile was just barely visible beneath his mask.

"Back from your mission, Kyomi-chan?" he asked brightly. "Took you long enough. My team's never going to be able to get anything done with the way you keep on stealing my student." Despite his words Kakashi's voice was teasing, showing that he wasn't being serious.

Kyomi matched Kakashi's smile with a grin of her own. "He's my student too," she replied. Slowly, her grin fell and her face took on a serious expression. "As for the mission...I actually need to talk to you about that."

Seeing her change of mood, Kakashi too grew serious and fully entered the room.

"The mission," Kyomi began while taking a deep breath. "It...It was an assassination."

Kyomi could see Kakashi's mouth form a thin line through his mask. He understood exactly why Kyomi was telling him this.

"Did he...?" Kakashi trailed off, leaving the question to hang in the air unsaid. _Did he bail on the mission?_

Kyomi shook her head. "No, he completed the mission just fine," she said softly. "He actually did very well. He took out the Chuunin guard there very easily. It's just been...difficult...for him."

Kakashi nodded absently, processing this information. "I'll postpone team meetings for a few days," he said finally. "That'll give him some time to think things over. The last thing that he needs right now is to be among people who won't be able to understand what he's going through."

Kyomi nodded mutely in response and the two of them fell into silence, both lost in their own thoughts. Because of this Kyomi was almost startled when Kakashi spoke up once more.

"I really should take Sasuke on an assignation mission," the shinobi said, almost to himself. "It's just...I-- I'm afraid, to be honest. He almost killed Naruto before, two years ago. What if such a mission changed Sasuke? What if he tries to defect again?"

Kyomi smiled sadly at Kakashi. "But if you hold him back then he'll only resent you for it. And besides, we'd never get anywhere if we spent all of our time worrying over 'what ifs'." She paused for a moment, considering a sudden idea. "Although...What if you took Sasuke-kun out on an assassination mission right now? Once he's back both he and Naruto-kun will be going through similar things so they might be able to help each other through it. It'll bring them closer as teammates and comrades."

While considering Kyomi's suggestion Kakashi suddenly began to chuckle. Playfully he reached out and pushed Kyomi's head. "You can be so manipulating sometimes, you know that?"

"It's not being _manipulating_," the kunoichi rebuffed indignantly. "It's just...it's just...placing them in a situation that'll help them, if they so choose."

Kakashi continued to laugh while shaking his head in amusement. "Of course, imouto. Of course."

--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--

Kyomi let out a sigh as she strode down a long hallway through a large complex. Many doors littered the sides of the hall, but Kyomi bypassed them all until she came to a large metal door, where she hesitated.

Currently Kyomi was in one of the numerous ANBU complexes that could be found in the village. This particular one just so happened to be considered to be "headquarters". Everyone there was decked out in their ANBU gear, including Kyomi herself.

It had already been nearly a week since Kyomi's conversation with Kakashi. Shortly after that Kakashi had taken Kyomi's advice and had taken Sasuke on an assassination mission. Since then Naruto and Sasuke had met several times and it appeared that they were indeed using each other to get over what they'd done. The blonde was beginning to spend more and more time with his team, including that Sakura girl.

After her pause Kyomi lifted one hand and knocked soundly on the door. A muffled reply came from inside a moment later and Kyomi opened the door and slipped inside.

The room which Kyomi entered was clearly an office. It was fairly spare, containing only a desk, several chairs, and numerous filing cabinets. Behind the desk was a young purple haired woman who was in ANBU gear but wore no mask. Without her signature white cloak one would have never known that she was on of the four ANBU commanders.

"You called for me, Neko-dono?**(2)**" Kyomi prompted.

The woman looked up from the paper--a mission report, Kyomi thought--that she'd been reading. "Ah, yes, Ookami-san," she said while placing the paper to the side. She then gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Please, have a seat. There's something that I need to speak with you about."

Frowning beneath her mask, Kyomi did so. She then waited in patient silence for the commander to continue.

"We've recently received some new information," the woman said. She pulled a packet of papers and passed them to Kyomi. "Here, read this."

Kyomi took the papers and quickly scanned through them. After a moment, as the information processed in her mind, the kunoichi gasped and looked up.

"This is--!"

Neko nodded solemnly. "Yes," she replied softly. "The Akatsuki activity has increased exponentially within the past few months. We have reason to believe that they'll make another attempt on Uzumaki Naruto soon. We've already stepped up patrols and guard shifts around the village, but...

"As I'm sure that you already know, Konohagakure will be hosting the Chuunin Exams in just over two weeks. We expect them to enter the village then and make their move. This _cannot_ affect the Exam. We have been unable to attend the Exams for the last two years so we _must_ present a strong face to the rest of the shinobi world. We must show that we are as powerful as ever and are able to stand up to anyone who whishes to face us."

Kyomi hesitated. "Do you...wish to keep Naruto out of the Exam?"

Immediately the ANBU commander began to shake her head. "No. Definitely not. You see, we'll be placing our best Genin teams into the Exam. We'll be notifying the teams of their acceptance tomorrow--which is part of the reason why I'm speaking to you now, first--and Genin Team #7 will be one of them. Team # 7 is one of our most powerful teams as it's made up of Uzumaki, the last Uchiha, and Tsunade-sama's apprentice. We expect the team to do well in the Exams and they shall all be promoted to Chuunin regardless of the outcome of the Exam.

"On top of that, we do not wish to pull Uzumaki from the Exam because that would alert the Akatsuki that we know of their plan. We would then have no idea what they would do instead. No, it's best to let things play out while they're under our control and surveillance.

"The reason why I've called you here, other than to warn you, is because I just came back from a meeting with the Hokage. Her orders are that you're to move in immediately with Uzumaki Naruto, in order to keep an eye on him in case the Akatsuki do something other than what we expect. Team 7 shall be taken off all missions until the Exam and will use that time to train as a team. During those two weeks you'll work with Hatake Kakashi to train them all. You'll receive the pay of an A-rank mission for your time."

Kyomi let out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair and ran a hand through her hair. Things were quickly starting to get complicated.

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**End Notes:** I'm just curious if any one would be interested in reading a story about Kyomi's Genin team and what things were like when she and Itachi were growing up. I'm _not_ saying that I'm going to be writing such a story, as I'm _really_ busy right now, but the idea is in the back of my mind. Thoughts? It depends mainly on you readers as to whether or not I'll write it.

And before anyone asks, the whole thing with the second Mangekyo Sharingan wielder _will_ be explained, but not until third part of this trilogy. You see, this first one is called _Imouto Trilogy : Hatake : Even After All These Years_. The second is Imouto _Trilogy : Momochi : From the Shadows_ and the third is _Imouto Trilogy : Uchiha : Kaleidoscope_. The full story will be spread out through these, though starting with the second one things will quickly start to get complicated. This story is more like the intro to it all than anything else (**winks**) You'll see.

Oh, and before I forget, I recently put up a C2 containing some good OC-centric stories that I've managed to find; mainly ItachiOC and KakashiOC. You can check that out if you're interested. Also, if anyone is interested in becoming staff for the C2 because they know of some good stories, please don't hesitate to ask!

Please review! Ja ne!

--B.I.


	17. Chapter 16: The Team

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Claimer: I do own Kyomi and the story plot.

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Even After All These Years

Chapter 16  
_The Team_

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Naruto stared intensely at the board before him. His eyes scanned over it, searching for something. A frown marred his face until-- There!

Quite suddenly Naruto lifted up his hand and set down a black stone on the board with a loud clink. He grinned triumphantly and looked up at this opponent.

Naruto was currently upstairs in Kenmaru's training room, playing Go with the elder man as they'd taken to doing often. Despite this seemingly brilliant move, however, the blonde found that Kenmaru was grinning wickedly at him.

Scowling, Naruto dropped his gaze back to the board. His eyes scanned over the patterns of stone there. Was there something that he'd missed? But he'd planned ahead for what Kenmaru would do and he was sure that that last move had narrowed down most of Kenmaru's stones' options. He was closing in on him now. So no, Kenmaru must just be trying to make him doubt himself into making a mistake. The retired shinobi seemed to love to play head games, after all.

The game continued on for several minute when Naruto suddenly let out a gasp, his eyes glued to the board. Kenmaru had surrounded nearly half his stones in just a few moves!

"What the hell?!"

Kenmaru began cackling loudly. "Still not good enough yet, _Hige-kun_! You're not looking far enough ahead!"

Naruto scowled at his teacher. He wanted to protest that he _had_ been looking really far ahead, but he knew from past experience that it'd only fall on deaf ears.

"Well, at least you two seem to be getting along better," an amused voice said from off to the side.

Squawking in surprise, Naruto instantly leapt up from his seat. Kenmaru however didn't even bat an eyelash. Instead he turned to look at the other side of the room, where Kyomi was leaning up against the doorframe that led to the stairs. A wide smirk rested on her face, further showing her amusement.

"What brings you here, Hatake-san?" the older man asked. Both he and Kyomi ignored how Naruto was still spluttering in the background.

Kyomi's smirk widened into a grin. "I'm afraid I need to steal Hige-kun away from you for a bit," she replied,

Kenmaru waved a dismissive hand at Naruto. "Well, go on then," he told the blonde.

"But what about our game?"

"Oh, we're done with this one," Kenmaru said with a shark-like grin. "Trust me."

Battling the childish urge to stick his tongue out at Kenmaru, Naruto strode over to Kyomi. The ANBU gestured for him to continue down the stairs.

"Wait outside," the kunoichi instructed. Her eyes were glued to Kenmaru. "I'll be down in just a minute."

Naruto frowned curiously, but did as he was told. Meanwhile, Kyomi noiselessly walked over to Kenmaru. As she approached her eyes fell on the board in front of him.

"Go?" Kyomi questioned with a tinge of awe in her voice. "Why didn't _I_ think of that?! It's perfect for teaching Naruto-kun strategy!"

Kenmaru let off another one of his mad cackles. "Indeed it is! The boy needs a healthy dose of it if he wants to survive in the shinobi world. Though...I'll admit that he already had quite a bit of creativity. That will serve him well..."

Kenmaru stared contemplatively down at the go board before him for a minute, his fingertips ghosting over the stones. When he looked back up at the silent Kyomi his face had grown very serious.

"What is it that you need to speak to me about?" the retired shinobi asked. His tone was heavy and exhausted. "You wouldn't interrupt one of Naruto's training sessions for no reason, after all."

Kyomi chuckled softly. "Indeed, Kenmaru-san," she said warmly. "I'm afraid that Naruto-kun won't be able to come here for training until after the Chuunin exams. On the Hokage's orders I'll be helping his team with intensive training for the next two weeks. They won't even be allowed to go on missions."

Kenmaru nodded. "Alright," he said with a vicious grin. "I'll just be sure to push him three times as hard when I seen him again." He clapped Kyomi on the shoulder. "Anyway, good luck. This Chuunin Exam shall be ominous. I only hope that we'll all make it out alright."

A shiver ran down Kyomi's spine at Kenmaru's words. Somehow it seemed to be more of a premonition than an old man's warning.

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After leaving Kenmaru's shop Kyomi found Naruto waiting in the street. As she began to walk away Naruto easily fell in step with her.

For several minutes Naruto waited for Kyomi to speak but she never did. She looked rather...distracted, as if there was something important on her mind. Finally however, Naruto decided to break the oppressive silence.

"So...what's so important that you needed to pull me from Kenmaru's? We don't have training for another hour yet."

Kyomi blinked in surprise, as if she'd forgotten that the blonde had been there. Quickly her solemn disposition disappeared, replaced by a smirk.

"Well, Hige-kun, there've been some change of plans," she told him. "For the next two weeks until the Chuunin Exams you're going to be pulled off the mission list and your training with Kenmaru-san will be put on hold."

A confused expression flashed over Naruto's face. "So...I'm just going to be training with you during that time?

"Nope!"

"Then _what_?"

"You'll be doing intensive 24-hour training with your team. And I'll be Kakashi-kun's co-instructor!"

Naruto stared at Kyomi with a look of pure horror. "You _and_ Kakashi?!" he gasped. "Dear Kami you're trying to kill us aren't you?!"

Kyomi began snickering while Naruto moaned on in the background.

After that little scene Kyomi led the blonde to Team 7's training ground. Naruto trailed sulkily along behind her, but came nonetheless. When they finally came into view they found Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura were already there, waiting for them. Kyomi couldn't hold back a small grin at the sight; it brought back memories of when Naruto had first dragged her here several months ago.

Sasuke and Sakura were both surprised to see Kyomi with Naruto. Regardless, the pink haired kunoichi executed a small, polite bow as soon as she had gathered himself.

"Good afternoon, Hatake-san," she greeted while glancing between Kyomi and Naruto. "What brings you here?"

"And for that matter," Sasuke added with a growl and a glare in Kakashi's direction, "Why are we here? We already met as a team earlier."

Kakashi smiled mysteriously from beneath his mask. "We're going to be doing some special training for the Chuunin Exam," he said. The Genin waited for him to explain further, but he only continued to smile. Finally, Kyomi rolled her eyes and stepped up next to Kakashi.

"What this idiot is trying to say," she said while jerking her thumb at her older brother, "Is that you're going to be doing some intensive team training for the next two weeks. This means no missions, no extended breaks, and no to even leaving the training grounds. I've been assigned to help Kakashi-kun during this time, so for the next two weeks we'll be co-instructors."

Sakura's brow furrowed in confusion. "But what about my training sessions with Tsunade-sama?"

"They've been put on hold. The same is with Hige-kun and Sasuke-kun's special training. We'll be working solely on teamwork."

"Alright, but what about our clothing, equipment, and weapons? Can we go pick up some stuff from home?"

"No," Kyomi answered the kunoichi shortly. "There'll be times on missions when you'll just have to make due with what you have. And besides, by now you should know enough to always have some extra equipment with you."

Both Kyomi and Kakashi could tell by the struck expressions on the Genin's faces--even Naruto's--that none of them were prepared. Kyomi simply smirked; this would also be a bit of a lesson in that area as well then.

"I still don't see why we need to do this," Sasuke growled after a moment. "We're already powerful enough."

Kyomi rolled her eyes and then cross her arms before her, more than content to let Kakashi answer this one. After seeing that she was indeed going to keep quiet, Kakashi began scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Well," the eldest Hatake began, "While it's true that all of you are strong, none of you have worked together at all--be it training or missions-in quite a while. You need to work on your teamwork because it's essential for many different missions. Not to mention that since you haven't worked together much you probably have next to no idea as to each other's skills.

Simultaneously the Genin blinked in surprise. Not only had the explanation actually made sense--a rarity when it came to Kakashi--but it had also been just about the most that they'd ever heard him speak at one time.

"Right!" Kakashi then said while smiling brightly. "Let's get moving then. We'll be using a different training ground for this; one with more...suitable...terrain."

The training ground, as it turned out, was a Jounin-only one that not even Naruto had ever been to. The high fence that marked its boundaries held in thick leafy trees and rocky ground. It almost reminded the Genin of the Forest of Death, though on a much smaller and less dangerous level.

Kakashi stopped them in front of the chain link fence. Kyomi was no where to be seen, having split of from the group not long after they'd left Training Ground #7.

Sakura took a moment to stare curiously at the fence. "Why is it enclosed?" she asked. "None of the other training ground I've been to have been."

Kakashi gave her another one of his smiles while pulling out his Icha Icha Paradise book. "That's just it," he said as he turned a page. "None of the ones you've been to have had fences because they're open to everyone--civilians and shinobi alike. Other training grounds, however, are fenced in because they're reserved for Chuunin or for Jounin. It's illegal to enter one if you're not of proper rank."

"Then why are we here?" Sasuke asked while raising an eyebrow. "We're Genin after all."

"That's because you're with us," a voice said from seemingly nowhere. "Jounin are allowed to reserve the training grounds for their students."

The Genin looked off to the side and saw Kyomi striding towards them. In one hand she was carrying a rather large scroll. The silver haired kunoichi stopped next to Kakashi and then tossed the scroll to the Genin.

"That," Kyomi continued as Naruto caught the scroll, "Is all of the supplies that you'll be allowed to have during the next few weeks. If you run out...Well, that's your problem. You'll have the rest of this evening to explore some of the training ground, find a place to set up camp, and divide the supplies among you. We'll be starting the training bright and early tomorrow morning."

"What about food?" Sakura inquired. "There can't be enough food for all of us for two weeks in a sealing scroll."

"There's no food in here," Kyomi replied shortly. "There's wildlife in the training ground though; you'll have to catch and cook your own food." The Genin all gaped but Kyomi only smirked widely in response.

Kakashi was watching the rather one-sided conversation with amusement when the little orange book in his hands suddenly disappeared. The Jounin immediately began to look around in a panic, only to freeze when he saw that it was in Kyomi's hands. The kunoichi grinned dangerously while slipping the book into one of her pockets. Kakashi began to whisper prayers that the book would survive. Maybe she'd be in a good mood and wouldn't burn it...

Still sweating a bit, Kakashi turned to the fence behind him and unlocked the gate. The two Hatakes ushered the children in before closing the gate behind them. It clicked shut ominously.

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Naruto let out a sigh as he stared the scroll before him. Next to him Sasuke and Sakura were staring as well. They were all eager to see what it contained, but at the same time were hesitant. Thus the staring.

Team 7 had spent the past few hours exploring the training ground. Though by no means massive, it was fairly large and was filled with thick forests. There were, however, several large clearings, a river, and a couple of small caves as well.

The Genin were currently sitting inside of one of these caves. It was a great place to stay as it provided both adequate protection and a safe place to build a fire.

Abruptly Sasuke reached out and picked up the scroll. "No use waiting," he grunted. Despite his words he hesitated for just another moment before finally opening the scroll.

The dark haired boy bit his thumb and squeezed the blood onto the opened scroll to activate it. Instantly there was a poof of smoke as the contents appeared. It took a moment fro the smoke to disappear, but when it had the three Genin found themselves staring at a pile of shuriken, kunai, bandages, medical kits, and a few other miscellaneous items. They continued to stare for another minute before Sakura finally took charge.

"Right, let's split them up then," the kunoichi said. "Everyone pull their equipment out as well and then we can equally divide _everything_ up. Keep in mind when we're training that this is all we have; don't loose any shuriken or anything."

Naruto stared at Sakura in surprise. Since when had she become so...mature? Usually she just left everything up to Sasuke. It seemed that being Tsunade's apprentice was doing her good in more ways than one.

Upon seeing Naruto's--and Sasuke's--stare, Sakura flushed slightly. She didn't back down however and instead transformed her expression into a glare.

"Well?" she barked.

Quickly Naruto began to pull out all of his weapons, including Metaru no Ryuujin; he knew first hand just how hard she could hit, especially when she got angry. Sasuke and Sakura followed his actions. Once they were all done and had gotten and equal number of weapons, all three of the Genin were surprised to find the number of blades that they now had.

"Why...don't we hide a few of these away?" Naruto suddenly asked. Sasuke and Sakura turned to stare at him, incomprehension written over their faces. "So that if anything _does_ happen, we'll have a stash!" the blonde defended.

Sasuke and Sakura shared an odd look, but in the end agreed with Naruto's logic.

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The next morning dawned bright and early for the shinobi of Team 7. Or at least it did for the two Hatakes, who were up and watching the Genin from the treetops as the children slept on, blissfully unaware.

"Shall we wake them up then?" Kyomi asked with a mischievous grin. Kakashi replied with a smirk of his own.

"We did warn them that they'd have to get up early," he said.

Grin widening, Kyomi leapt from where she'd been standing on a wide tree limb to land silently in a crouch on the ground. She quickly went through a series of hand seals before whispering, "**Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu** (_Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique_)."

For a few seconds after Kyomi finished nothing happened. Then, quite suddenly, three very loud screams ripped through the air, originating from within the cave. Moments later Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura shot out from the cave entrance, screaming at the top of their lungs as if the Shinigami himself was on their heels.

As soon as the three saw the ANBU they skidded to an abrupt halt. Cautiously they looked behind them and, when finding nothing there, back to Kyomi. Her lips were twitching, they noticed, as if trying to hold back laughter.

As he knew Kyomi the best, Naruto was the first to figure out what'd happened. "Kyomi-sensei! That wasn't funny!" He cried indignantly. There was a slightly whiny note in his voice.

Kyomi coughed lightly in a further attempt to hide her amusement. "Of course not," She said completely straight-faced. "It wasn't funny at _all_. Ah, well, now that you're all up, let's get started with your first day of death-- Er, I mean training. Yes, training." Kyomi smiled innocently as if it had actually been a mistake.

Naruto groaned quietly. "We're so doomed," he whimpered.

Kyomi had to cover her mouth in order smother the laughter that was threatening to spill out.

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A/N: All author notes will be at the end of the chapters now. Why? Because it makes it easier for me to comment on the chapter. And, of course, because I feel like it.

Thanks to all those who reviewed! It was actually the same amount as last time--despite the fact that the last chapter had even _more_ hits--but I've given up on you people. It's your choice whether or not you want to review, so whatever. On a lighter note, it's Itachi's birthday today! I made a point to upload this chapter today just because of that. Granted, Itachi isn't actually in this chapter, but it should only be a couple more before he's back and his and Kyomi's relationship begin to develop. Please review! Ja ne!

--B.I.


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